Monday, June 30, 2008

diva short film

Katherine has put together a short film from the Spring Formal.

Seeing everyone in their outfits, on their bikes or around the tables makes me feel happy to know each of you. Many thanks, Katherine, for putting this together.

posted by rose

Friday, June 27, 2008

brown bear takes it

We started out with 10. Ready to tackle some singletrack including notorious Brown Bear Trail. We all made it... but Mary Kay's derailleur hanger didn't. So she single-speeded her bike to ride back to the trailhead... and this was just after she wanted to do the trail again! You go, girl!
The rest of the ride was a mix of more singletrack connected by some wider trails. Thanks everyone for not mutinying while we were hiking through the squishy ground on Moose Bone... not a place you want to get lost because every Alaskans' fave insects were out in full force.

I must tell you that after some changes on Brown Bear earlier this season, the trail is in great condition with improved flow and fewer places where you have to dismount the bike... so, if you haven't been on it lately, go check it out again. It's worth it.Thanks Mary for taking this group shot where the Bears meet.

posted by rose

Thursday, June 12, 2008

fab ride

What a great evening for a ride in Bicentennial Park! A small group gathered at Hillside for a climb up Spencer Loop. It actually felt a bit like summer as we made our way up all the climbs. We enjoyed the views on the descent, then headed over to the Ridge trail. Beautiful conditions. Black Bear had no puddles, and Rover's Run, aka Mellen's Way, was also in great shape.

Thanks for joining in on this fun ride. Here's part of our merry band after finishing Rover's.


I hear Wednesday's ride in Chugiak was also a great time. See you next week!


posted by rose

Sunday, June 8, 2008

thanks trail workers!













In a collaboration Singletrack Advocates & other mountain bikers, fourteen people showed up on Saturday to help on a trail clean-up project in Far North Bicentennial Park. Divas Elizabeth, Bonnie, Mary V. and her daughter Laura and I joined other people for a morning project.

We were hauling out wood that was used to build illegal structures in the park and filling in some holes. Work started the night before when two volunteers cut some wood into manageable chunks we could haul out easily with the bike trailers.

People removed nails, carried lumber by hand and used three trailers to get everything out to the road. We filled post holes and a hole that was created when the renagade trail builders were building a jump. We also tidied up a piece of trail that had a slightly banked turn built on it.

The project went pretty smoothly, and we were especially happy to have new volunteers with young, strong backs to haul and do lots of shoveling! Plus, having the trailers was a great help.

So, thanks go out to the volunteers listed above, plus our wood cutters, Greg & Tim K., and the rest of our Saturday crew: Oscar, Jeff, Ted, Kyle, Nik, Debbie, Carol, Brian and Jon. Well done!

Here are the "after" pics and comments from Mary: "Just a note - I had a great time at the trail clean-up today! I rode one of the bikes with a bob trailer, and got experience in shuttling lumber down the trail. We had a resident moose and everything! We broke one bike chain, but otherwise a group of over 10 people from a variety of groups successfully hauled out wood and filled in holes that damaged the trail. Yippee! We quickly went to work and made a difference. Thanks, Rose, for organizing this. Having 3 bob trailers was great, too. We went to town."




Thursday, June 5, 2008

4 June 2008 A Tale of Two Rides

From Jamie, the leader ~

The Little Lost Fairy has been following us the past two rides, I'm afraid. She has been waving her magic wand over the back of the group!

We waited and waited (24 minutes) then decided to hightail it back to the parking lot to see if you were there. It was 7:59PM and we had only ridden 1.71 miles, and I nearly had a tantrum when someone suggested that perhaps we were through for the night. We should have initially gone the way that Bev (a.k.a. "Don't Look at Me to Be a Ride Leader, I Don't Know My Way Around") said to go on our usual ride route. Unfortunately, *I* (a.k.a. "I Don't Really Know My Way Around, But I Can Fake It") was appointed the leader. Too bad for everyone!! I decided to take a path I've never been on that went down to Little Campbell Lake, and across a long wooden bridge. At the end of the bridge and top of the hill, I went LEFT at the fork in the path. The Divas behind me went LEFT. Somewhere, somehow, somebody didn't wait.

Unfortunately, the Little Lost Fairy waited at the fork, picked it up, and jabbed a moose with it. That Fairy is EVIL!! I heard her cackling behind some trees! Because it happened two more times!! We got separated another TWO times!!!

We also went down Roller Coaster, pedaled a little Mize, then hit the Stadium (I was in my granny gear trying to get across that area in the 82 knot headwind), did part of the Daisy Chain and Little Niagara. While we were fighting the wind in the Stadium, someone said, "Hey, why don't we just take the pavement right back to the Raspberry Parking Lot?" I didn't see who said that, because I was trying to keep my bike upright against the hurricane, but I told them we were the DIRT Divas, not the PAVEMENT Divas. Plus, I wanted to see the new biathlon range. The wind was completely INSANE! What the ^*>#@+ is the deal with this weather?! Thank goodness we got back to the cars for yummy Chai, homemade ginger cookies, muffins, and watermelon! YIPPEE! That was the best part of the entire ride! Of course, there also wasn't a mosquito within sixty miles of us either....

Hope to see everyone next week! I'd like to brainstorm something to keep this from happening the for the third time. Any suggestions? Besides Little Lost Fairy Exterminator Spray?

from Karen, the other leader ~

Yes, a bunch of us got lost. Me, Bev, Gloria, Marcia and I forget the other lady's name (sorry). We were waylaid by a moose so all hope of catching up with the larger group was lost. We were ok tho as we stuck together and had a good, albeit cold and windy, ride anyway. Did roller coaster and half of the Mize loop. Hightailed it back to the Raspberry parking lot via the paved trail. We were back to the parking lot by 8:30 and went home, too cold to stick around. The young ladies brought muffins, bless their hearts. Got your note Jamie. We'll see y'all next week. Hopefully it'll be warmer.