More skiing
Author: J. R. Patee
Covid Hobbies
Alaska wildlife
Alyeska
South rim trail last week
Kitchen window
Winter biking at home
“We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them,”
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
Read an article the other day about exercising and numbers and following the metrics. From INC. Magazine https://apple.news/A7iw63FcgSsOMHjvxv90vpg basically said it is nice to follow your heart rate, and speed and time and blah blah, but sometimes nice to just go out and enjoy.
Somehow I do not think I have had that problem of following the numbers real close, although I can definitely be accused of it. When my mom read my journal of sailing from Hawaii to Seattle she said I could have just put the journal in a spreadsheet. Ok.
But as I have aged I have gotten even slower and in turn somewhat paid more attention along the way. Ok maybe that is an excuse for going slow, but whatever I still follow the speed, and the heart rate and the blah blah blah, but it seems these days it just gives me a reference to who knows what.
Ok I ramble a bit. It is COVID time, it is winter and here in Anchorage it is but 6 hours of light a day now. Happily that is increasing now past the solstice. It is sometimes hard to get out and exercise, although one definitely feels better after.
But in the riding around the delightful trails here one comes across decorations scattered about. And some bikes have decorated themselves with Christmas lights. Just because there is only a short window of light does not mean one cannot get out. Today’s flashlights, headlamps, torches and such leave no excuse for limiting ones time to daylight.
Trail side decorations
Spectators
Even Santa had a stop along the trail
Trail side decorations
Covid Winter
Man may turn which way he please, and undertake anything whatsoever, he will always return to the path which nature has prescribed for him.
Goethe
And now we are in a covid time and winter is upon us here in Alaska. Thus far it is a wonderful winter. With the changing climate Alaska has really noticed the increasing warmth and problems associated with that. I say normal ski season use to begin the first of October. People laugh and questioned that, and the last time that happened was 1995. (I define skiing as open the garage door, put on skiis and go.) I have for the last years defined winter as being cold, snowy, and dark. The last years the cold and snow has often been missing or inconsistent, which leaves the dark. Biking or skiing in the rain at above freezing temperatures is not a huge amount of fun. But this year is proving great. We have had snow on the ground for nearly 3 weeks now. Anchorage has some of the best ski and bike trails anywhere, and they are groomed exquisitely, primarily volunteer effort and volunteer contributions. Makes for a very fine community.
As for the covid thing well yes we are not socializing as much, not traveling, not getting together. But life is constantly changing and I am finding the new challenges can be exciting. Whereas we would often have a trip planned somewhere exotic or not, it was somewhere, but then I think, people spend a lot of time and money to come to Alaska to vacation, visit or whatever. There are some great things here. And we are enjoying them now, not that we did not before, but in a new light local stuff can brighten up.
Hence for the past 3 weeks, actually for the past 249 days since we went on “lock down” (not a true lockdown) I have been outside everyday. The past weeks exploring the trails has been delightful. Anchorage over the past 4 years, since I last really went mountain biking has developed some awesome single track trails. They have been building them for the past 10 years, but the past 4 years have really taken off. As I volunteer at the ski jumps I hear the near constant whooping of bikers on the trails below going through the woods. A trail called Jeff’s whoop whoop seems to create a lot of noise, and I now know why.
But we are in full blown winter and delightful as the sun is low reaching a peak altitude of about 9 degrees above the horizon. One is required to stop whenever there is an opening amongst the tree which will allow you to stop and just stare at the sun. Sure feels good this time of year.
With temperatures a very pleasant -10 C (14F) the world is quiet and serene. Anchorage has a large variety of micro climates sometimes ranging over 29 degrees C (50 F) over a 16 kilometer radius (10 miles). Most of the riding I find is in the colder areas. From our house it will be -10 C (14F) and we drop down a hill a couple kilometers and the temperature is -17C (4F). But as the saying goes “there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear”.
Joy
Life is a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller
Interesting past months. Have not been on my bicycle since October riding into Washington D.C. in the mud. Not that I have not done some sort of exercise, but biking has not happened. Numerous excuses. Pick one.
Hence it is time, and I began working on bikes. First the fat tire bike which I loaned to a friend to ride but in getting it ready had a hard time adjusting the front derailleur. Just could not get it to shift right. Ok ignore it fix it when it came back. Thus I started there. Oh my gosh. Embarassing!
Took the crank out and oh my! Seems I did not clean it thoroughly after riding the beach a few years ago. Some friend and I had ridden 70 miles (about 100K) from clam gulch to Homer over two days. Sand and salt water. Plus there were several creek crossings, which one I thought was 6″ deep (about 15 cm) but it was 6 feet (about 2 mete). Fat bikes float, but I and the bike got drug along the gravel for a bit.
I would say it had not been cleaned enough and has been well used. New crank chain rings, cluster, chain and basically a new drive train. Going 1x 10 getting rid of front derailleur.
Then the karate monkey a 29er I have for cruising about town. Just some cleaning adjusting and making it shine. Then Jeanne’s El Mariachi also a 29er which she took back east last fall. Needed put back together, bearings cleaned, brakes needed clear of air and gunk in the hydraulic lines. New cassette, chain, chain rings clean the derailleur.
Then the past weekend it was time to get out of Anchorage, as have either been visiting, or had visitors and been going hard, so we took a day and drove to Talkeetna, a quaint Alaska town overrun by tourists.
We took the two 29er bikes and rode out of town on a delightful bike path. Oh my gosh. I forgot how much fun biking is, especially when the bikes are purring. Everything just flowed (well the motor was a bit off) what a treat!
I remembered how much fun bicycling is.
This is Thursday it must be Picton
“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks – on your body or on your heart – are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt”
Anthony Bourdain
Continuing on our whirlwind tour we made our way into the town center of Christchurch, to see what makes it a city where people want to live. It lies on the Canterbury plains and generally I have a problem with flat, again my bias comes out. We had heard it was and is having a hard time rebuilding after the devastating earthquakes of 2010 & 2011.
We arrived and found a beautiful park next to the Avon river with easy parking, although it took a bit to figure out how to pay via the computerized meter. Soon though I was showing the locals.
We began walking and came across what was a boarded up church hoping to be rebuilt. Apparently it suffered major damage and was built in the late 1800’s. We found the earthquake museum and headed there, again leery of tourist attractions.
This museum was great not only explaining the stories and their earthquake but why it was so bad. Again my prejudice showed and I was thinking anchorage just had a 7.0 earthquake 30 November) which is what theirs was. Christchurch earthquake was in November of 2010. It shook for 45 seconds with some damage and some injuries. But they congratulated themselves and felt ok, but the aftershocks continued. In March 2011 a 6.0 aftershock hit and numerous buildings collapsed resulting in 135 people dying and thousands injured.
the museum continued with great explanations not only of plate tectonics but the process of liquifaction. Christchurch is built on unstable soils, as is anchorage, and that led to a collapse of numerous buildings weakened unknowingly in first big quake.
Since then thousands of people are working on how to mitigate damages. It is an ongoing process, not only with building codes, but soil and geology work. We had heard some of the damages areas were condemned and people had to move out, but then real estate developers came in and said it was better now and charged exorbitant prices for the old land. The museum did not mention this, but it did cover how work is ongoing on mitigating the soil problems.
As per usual I may have some of the facts misconstrued but I tried to remember and learn.
Then on to city center a block away where the “world buskers festival” was taking places.
great food trucks, great street entertainment, and time to move on.
Half way between Christchurch and Picton, where we catch the ferry Friday morning, is a peninsula Kaikoura with a town. Seemed perfect and what a surprise. Great beach incredible views and a very tourist town, but not obnoxious. Stayed at. Holiday 10 as the other camper parks had really bad reviews. We have found holiday 10’s ok but definite McDonald’s like in that you know what you are getting each time generally. This one was not as crowded and felt good.
This Thursday morning went for a hike out on the point and wonderful to just see the ocean. Departing found the world famous Kaikoura BBQ and opted for the blue cod dinner and chowder although the crayfish looked great(lobster)
And so we arrived picton completing our circumnavigation of the South Island. Time is way too short.
jrpatee 