It was not a typical Saturday. Up at 5:30 to pick up my friend Diana at 6:00am, we were on the road headed north to take on our first bike ride to Knik Glacier.
I had a fat tire bike, and this would be the first full day ride with it. Diana decided not to rent a bike, which meant she would ride her mountain bike with studded 26.5” tires. Not having ridden for at least 6 months, taking on a 24+ mile round trip ride on a frozen river in 8* weather was going to be a task, and we both knew it. Solid research of the ride from others that have done it told us where to start, and when to be stopped. Start at Hunter Creek just past the wooden bridge, near the end of the Knik River Road. Get off by 1:30, before the warm sun starts to soften the crust snow.
Neither Diana or I had driven down Knik River Road, and we were enjoying watching the daylight come up. The drive was about 1-1/2 hrs north, and we were the first ones to be at the parking lot. Just for fun we drove to the end of the road and learned there is a beautiful lodge and individual cabins, Knik River Lodge. It did not appear open at 7:30 in the morning, so we made a note to check it out on the way back.
Sitting in the car fueling our bodies up, we debate the final determination of gear: what to wear! It is always a challenge. I’ll try not to bore anyone here, but you want to be the right temperature. It is an art, figuring out what to wear when biking in Alaska. As you move fast in cold air you can chill like a wine bottle, but if you wear too much you can overheat, or worse you can become covered in sweat, and end up with hypothermia due to your clothing layers not wicking. The saying “there is no bad weather, only bad gear” is true. So is the saying “the odds are good, but the goods are odd”, but that is not for this blog post.
So we step out of the car, dancing around to try to stay warm while we load our bikes. Diana has a back pack and a small seat bag. I don’t like long rides with a backpack, so I have water proof paneers. One contains camera gear and padding for the jostling, the other one contains a picnic to enjoy at whatever point we see is beneficial.
Finally getting down onto the river and starting the biking portion of the day’s journey, Diana is understandably nervous. No one recommended riding a mountain bike tire on this ride. This ride became popular with the development of fat tire bikes. It always had popularity with 4 wheelers and snow machines. I know that if anyone can do this ride on a mountain bike, in these perfect of perfect conditions with “good” temperatures to keep things frozen and a bluebird sky full of sun, it is Diana. Taking it slow is just the nature of the terrain.
Biking on the wide, braided, frozen river, following snow machine tracks that wind through alders, and back in the open, we start to see other people. A braided river offers many paths, but all lead in a single direction of the Knik glacier. Each person we see this early in the morning asks us if we know the path. None of us have been before. The day has a great feeling of camaraderie and purpose.
At one point we stop and chat with a couple of women that Diana knows, scoping out which path we should take as we can see others are biking close to the opposite river bank, more than a football field away. I suddenly see that what I thought was a rock is actually a moose kill, and hurry us along. I didn’t want to hang out long enough for photos, so there aren’t any. They would not have been pretty anyway.
About 3-1/2 hours after we started we were enjoying the amazing landscape created by calved glacier icebergs. Finding a place behind an iceberg to be out of the wind coming off the glacier, we stop to have our picnic. The bottle of
Merlot, vegan cheese by Myoko, and crackers were a great way to celebrate the accomplishment. But remember my earlier comment about chilling like a bottle of wine? The merlot was the coldest I have ever had a red wine, and a bit longer it might have turned into a slushie. We were chilling down ourselves by sitting still, so we wrapped it up and started to head back. As we were leaving it looked like all of Anchorage was biking in.
Grateful we left when we did, the ride back was faster due to having a
tailwind and gradually getting warmer as we were further away from the glacier face. We did not return on the same trail, and ended up coming back through a neighborhood. At a stop sign, there was a recent handmade sign “bear in area” that immediately had me thinking of that moose.
After finding our way to the car, we took a look at Knik Glacier Lodge. It was open. Sort of. Food service was not available for 2 more hours, so we decided to eat in Palmer. But we will be back. It is a beautiful lodge in a beautiful place. And it was such a beautiful day.
See the Photo Gallery tab for more images from the ride to Knik Glacier.
This was my first official outdoor bike ride of the year, to kick start my training for the Clean Air Challenge. Please consider donating to my fundraising efforts via this link: http://action.lung.org/site/TR/Bike/ALAMP_Mountain_Pacific?px=4659966&pg=personal&fr_id=14890