Tuesday Night Mountain Bike Rides thanks to: Doug Burnside

These rides will take place every Tuesday evening throughout the summer, rain or shine. Be ready to ride at 7:00PM, we’ll leave as soon as everyone is ready.

These rides will most definitely be rides, NOT races. The fun part of a group ride is riding in a group, socializing, meeting new people, and trying new trails. The idea is to keep the group together. It's almost easier to define what these rides aren't than what they are. They are not races. They are not training rides. They are not rides for people whose idea of a good time is to push the limits, get a hard workout, or see how fast they can go on a trail. They are not highly organized rides. They are rides that will be fun even for novice riders with limited off-road experience, and there will be experienced riders to offer advice, riding hints and mechanical help. All riders must be Fairbanks Cycle Club members. Rates are $30 for the season, or you can have a one-day membership for just $5.

Rides are rated in both skill required and overall difficulty. Skill refers to bike handling ability. Rides that aren’t technically challenging require little skill, and receive a low rating. Challenging trails like "Moose Mountain" are almost impossible to ride from one end to the other without coming off the pedals. These trails receive a high skill rating. The difficulty scale pertains to total energy and effort required by the cyclist. Difficulty ranges from easy ("Back Door Trail") to exceptionally hard ("Pipeline Viewpoint"). We’ve tried to schedule easy rides early in the season. A difficulty level of 1 would be equivalent to riding your bike on a gravel road with rolling hills for half an hour. A level of 10 would be like riding from Anne’s Greenhouse to the top of Ester Dome and back – three times.

4/29/08

"University Ski Trails"

15 miles, 2.5 hours, 1500' elevation gain

Skill Med

Difficulty 5
Meet at the Ski Hut by the Geophysical Building on campus and explore the ski trails until we get tired of them. Full suspension is a good thing to have on these trails. One of the most fun short trails in Fairbanks is the Bicycle Bumps trails and we’ll probably do it twice.

5/6/08

"Rosie Creek"

20 Miles, 3 hours, 1800' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 6
Meet at the intersection of Cripple Creek Road on the Parks Highway, about two miles past Ester. We'll do a boring five mile ride up the Parks Highway to the Rosie Creek wood cutting road, just past the intersection with Old Nenana Highway. This will take about an hour, but it is a gentle climb. Then we get about six miles of downhill rich riding, guaranteed to please. We'll come out on subdivision roads at the very bottom of the hill, at the Quist farm. From there it's about five incredibly long miles or so back to the cars. Many of our serious crashes have occurred on this ride, so please take it easy on the downhills.

5/13/08

"Back Door Trail"

8 miles, 2.0 hours, 800' elevation gain

Skill Low

Difficulty 4
Meet at Ester Community Park, located next to the Fire Station on the Old Nenana Highway just before the turnoff into Ester. We’ll find some agreeable way up Ester Dome that gets us to the Marathon Trail near the mine. If conditions permit, we’ll take the Back Door Trail (or whatever it’s called) back into Ester. This trail is downhill for 90% of the distance (about 4 miles) and is a LOT of fun. This early in the season it may be muddy, and there will be three puddles to ride through that could be as deep as 18--24 inches.

5/20/08

"Skyline Ridge"

19 miles, 3.0 hours, 2100' elevation gain

Skill Med

Difficulty 5
Meet at Dog Mushers Hall on Farmers Loop, where Liam Wescott will lead us up Skyline Ridge some interesting way. There’ll be some decision-making along the way, but no doubt that when the time comes, there’ll be a memorable descent back to the cars.

5/27/08

"Ester Mine Trail"

10.5 Miles, 3 hours, 2310' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 6
Meet at Ester Community Park. We'll take the TriCon road all the way to the top of Ester Dome. This is an arduous climb, but since we won't be racing, there's no reason to thrash yourself doing it. Taking an extra 20 minutes up the hill makes it a fun experience. We might go down the Alder Chute, then pick up the Back Door Trail back into Ester. There’s always alternatives, though, so you never know. Note: Riding down the Alder Chute is not a good idea for the faint of heart. This is a very difficult and challenging descent requiring above average bike handling skills. This will be the most dangerous trail we will ride the entire summer and if you are not fully confident of your abilities, you should walk your bike down this hill -- about 3/10 of a mile.

6/03/08

"Treasure Creek"

16 Miles, 2.5 hours, 2400' elevation gain

Skill Med.+

Difficulty 7
Meet at the intersection of Old Murphy Dome Road and the Elliot Highway, about 3.5 miles north of Fox. Ride west on Old Murphy Dome for about six miles or so, turning right onto a double track that leads along a ridge. There are two forks, and we need to go right, then left. Somebody remember this. After another six miles, we connect with the pipeline corridor, which we follow back to Old Murphy Dome Road.

6/10/08

"Birch Hill Ski Trails"

12 miles, 3 hours, 2300' elevation gain

Skill Med.+

Difficulty 6
Follow the leader, as hard or easy as we want to make it. These trails are a LOT of fun. They are safe, fast, challenging and entertaining, particularly if some cross-country skier who knows the trails can lead us. There are trails up there that are NOT part of the ski trail system that we can explore as well.

6/17/08

"Amanita Climb"

16 Miles, 3 hours, 2300' elevation gain

Skill Med. +

Difficulty 6
Meet at about 3.5 mile Chena Hot Springs Road, at Steele Creek Road. We’ll ride up Juniper to a double track, jump on Tungsten and ride up to Gilmore Trail. Turning right onto Gilmore, we ignore a few turns and turn right at the fork, then left onto a 4x4 trail. Eric Troyer takes over soon after, showing us some really cool trails back down to CHSR. If we reverse this ride, then we actually get to climb Amanita Rd.

6/24/08

"Death Ride"

21 Miles, 4 hours, 2900' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 8
Meet at about 3.5 mile Chena Hot Springs Road, at Steele Creek Road. We’ll ride the Death Ride course, which was arguably the dumbest way to ever be entertained on a bicycle. Be prepared for a LOT of elevation gain (nearly 3000 feet), two stream crossings and a mile long swamp that can run thigh deep in places. Sounds like fun!

7/1/08

"Clifden to Moose"

23 Miles, 4 hours, 2400' elevation gain

Skill Med. +

Difficulty 7
Meet at Ivory Jacks on Goldstream Road. We used to go up O'Connor Creek Trail, but it's been too muddy the last few years, so we'll go out Goldstream road a few miles and up behind the fire station near Clifden road. This connects to a really good trail that takes us to the Pipeline and Old Murphy Dome Road. We'll follow that to the powerline that leads to Moose Mountain ski area and from there we'll take the road bypass trail and a very steep section line down to some subdivision roads, and from there back to Ivory Jacks.

7/8/08

"Colorado Creek"

21 Miles, 4 hours, 2100' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 8
Endurance Alert: This is a taxing ride. Be sure to bring food and water - you will burn a lot of calories!
Start at 31.9 mile Chena Hot Springs Road at the Colorado Creek turnout. We start on the Colorado Creek trail, but a few miles in we leave it and take the Four Mile Ridge trail which puts us back out on Chena Hot Springs Road about 5 miles from where we started. This is the best ride of the whole season from the viewpoint of challenging riding, fun trails, great scenery, and two exciting descents. You'll really be out in the boonies on this ride. If you only do one ride all season, make it this one, provided you are in reasonably good condition. DO THIS RIDE!

7/15/08

"Lincoln – Cache Creek"

15-30 Miles, 3-4 hours, 2600' elevation gain

Skill Med.

Difficulty 8
Endurance Alert: This is a taxing ride. Be sure to bring food and water - you will burn a lot of calories!
Meet at about 7 mile Murphy Dome Road at the gravel pit before the end of the pavement. We’ll go up Richard Berry drive, take a trail off the end of that, ultimately fighting our way over to Old Murphy Dome Road. We ride west on OMDR for about 5 miles, where we intersect with Murphy Dome. No doubt some folks will choose to return to the cars at this point. Others continue on out Abraham, into Lincoln Creek subdivision, then picking up a trail that turns into a memorable descent down to Cache Creek Road, then it’s 9 miles back to the cars.

7/22/08

"Pipeline Viewpoint"

30 Miles, 4 hours, 3000' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 9-10
Endurance Alert: This is a taxing ride. Be sure to bring food and water - you will burn a lot of calories!
Start at the Pipeline Viewpoint on the Steese Highway just before Goldstream Road. We'll go up the pipeline corridor to Gilmore Trail, take Gilmore Trail to the Trapper Trail which goes along the ridges to Cleary Summit, then past the radar site, turning left on to the Silver Fox trail all the way to the Elliot. To make this ride a 10, continue on Old Murphy Dome Road to the pipeline corridor, following it all the way to Fox. From there it’s a short distance to the cars.

7/29/08

"Behind the Vallata"

20 miles, 4 hours, 2500' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 8
Endurance Alert: This is a taxing ride. Be sure to bring food and water - you will burn a lot of calories!
Meet at the Vallata Restaurant on Goldstream Road. We’ll ride out Goldstream to the trail behind the fire station, then up the Pack Trail, then west along Old Murphy Dome Road to the trailhead. At the end there’s a smoking descent that makes it all worth it. This is a very bumpy trail and full suspension is a good thing to have for this ride.

8/05/08

"Ester Fireplug"

13 Miles, 3 hours, 2340' elevation gain

Skill Med

Difficulty 7
Endurance Alert: This is a taxing ride. Be sure to bring food and water - you will burn a lot of calories!
Meet at the Ester Community Park and find some interesting way to the top of Ester Dome, ride out to almost the turnaround point of the Marathon trail, veer left, and enjoy some fun downhill and double-track trail all the way to the Fireplug trail. We turn right and look for a section line trail that will take us south to Old Nenana Highway, which we follow for a few miles to Old Wood Road. Then we take one of the nicer trails in town down a brilliant descent to the valley bottom, back to the cars under two miles away.

8/12/08

"Burgundy Drive"

23 miles, 4 hours, 1980' elevation gain

Skill Med+

Difficulty 7
Start at Valley Center, about 24 mile Chena Hot Springs Road. From there we'll go up Burgundy Drive, a ferocious climb that is rideable, but granny-gear low in spots. From there, we take the left fork at the top of the hill and eventually end up back on Chena Hot Springs Road near the Old Grange Road about four miles from where we started. We'll ride a loop around Jenny M hill, then take dog mushing trails back to Valley Center. Using puddles for obnoxious behavior, this ride has a higher than average fun factor.

8/19/08

"Two Rivers Ski Trails"

10 miles, 2 hours, 1000' elevation gain

Skill Low

Difficulty 4
Meet at Two Rivers School at about 18 mile Chena Hot Springs Road. We'll play follow the leader on the ski trails behind the school. There are some really excellent trails there and this is not a ride you'll want to miss. We'll ride for two hours, and the difficulty level will be as easy or as hard as you want to make it.

8/26/08

"Cleary Summit Loop"

20 miles, 3 hours, 2700' elevation gain

Skill Med

Difficulty 7
Lighting Alert: You won't really need them, but lights could be a good thing to have on this ride.
Meet at Cleary Summit on the Steese. We’ll follow the Fairbanks/Circle trail through some high country and some fine descents before climbing back up towards the cars.

9/02/08

"Moose Mountain"

15 miles, 3 hours, 1980' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 7
Lighting Alert: You can probably get by without them... but you will really want lights on this ride.
Meet at the gravel pit at 2 mile Murphy Dome road. We'll go over to the Moose Mountain Ski Lodge and take a "forgotten" access road most of the way up to the top, the regular roads/trails the rest of the way up. At that point, we'll have done 10% of the distance, and maybe 65% of the work. We'll follow the power lines over to Old Murphy Dome Road, follow it west on a long, shallow descent that can be ridden really fast, and look for a tiny trail to the left (the "rabbit trail"). This is a very technical and challenging downhill all the way back to the ski lodge.

9/09/08

"Marathon Back Door"

16 miles, 3 hours, 2100' elevation gain

Skill High

Difficulty 6
Lighting Alert: You will really, truly need your lights on this ride.
We'll meet at Ester Community Park, and do some riding on Ester Dome here and there, such that we get to ride the Back-Door trail back to Ester. You need a headlight on this ride.

It’s not over yet!
Each Tuesday until it snows, we go for a "Post Season Tuesday Ride". We set the meeting place/time each prior Tuesday. So, if you aren’t ready to hang it all up just yet, do these rides. They’re easily as much fun as the scheduled rides – a good time had by all.