This summer I've been trying to do more bike riding. I've finished most of the foot trails that i can get to and finish in one day but year after year i've ignored biking trails. A few weeks ago i did the Eklutna Lake trail. It's a 13 mile dead end and i was interested in it because it's supposed to terminate at the toe of the Eklutna Glacier, one of Anchorage's main water sources. The trail is really an old dirt road for service vehicles with numerous offshoots for biking/hiking closer to the shore. It's closed to public driving. You are allowed a couple of times a week to use an ATV on it, and the other days it's reserved for non-motorized use, which seems fair. I would really like an ATV but since i don't have one i had to ride a bike.
Baleful Peak comes into view after passing Bold and Bashful Peaks.
I had problems almost immediately. After previous long rides i determined that my bike seat did not live up to the task of cushioning my ass. I had been meaning to buy a new one but instead i decided to take Maree's more padded seat (and post) off of her bike and just stick in on my bike. I didn't actually put it together until i was at the lake an hour later. I was dismayed, to say the least, that her seat post was smaller than mine, and as a result, even tightening my post hole as far as it would go it couldn't grip the post enough to keep it in place. So i improvised and filled the shaft with gravel until the seat sat at the right height. It was a very imprecise method that required very frequent readjustment to get the height right and to then keep it in place as rocks shifted or were ground down into smaller pebbles. Pretty maddening, actually, especially since i could find no way to keep the seat straight, so even if it was the right height, it continuously twisted back and forth and would even turn to face backwards if i was in a standing position.
A glacier on the lower reaches of Baleful Peak.
Additionally, I had decided to use this bottle of water someone left in our refrigerator two years ago. I put it in the bottle holder above the gears and because the the trail was so rocky, the bottle holder poked a hole in the bottle. That, in turn, sprayed water all over my face and the sudden drop in pressure bounced the bottle out and onto the dusty ground where the newly wet bottle immediately covered itself in mud as it rolled to a stop. Again, very frustrating.
Even from half a dozen miles away, the Mitre is imposing.
The trail proved to be a much more scenic ride than i had imagined. After 8 or 9 miles along the lake shore the trail continues beyond the lake and your view is taken up by the largest mountains in Chugach State Park: Mt. Bold and Bashful. What i was most impressed with though, was a huge mass of rock called The Mitre. I'd never paid attention to it on maps and had never seen it when visiting because of a bend in the lake, but it turned out the be the final destination of the bike trail.
In this closeup a tiny red and orange dot signifies a kayak with barely seen paddlers nearby. The beach and forest are still 4 miles closer than the massive scree slopes in the background.
