Moderate Mondays are an “all-surface” or “gravel-ish” no-drop GROUP ride. Find out more on the ride PAGE.
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06/15/2026
Report by Eric
Just two of us for this ride - me and Kevin.
I wanted to check out the construction that’s going on around the Mitchell Expressway. I also wanted to check out some of the gravel roads in the Chena Ridge/Chena Pump area. I hadn't been back in there in quite a while. Some of the roads that I thought would be gravel are now paved, but there are still a lot of gravel roads, some in really nice shape, others in rough shape. It was a good mix.
We went under the Mitchell - Chena River bridge, since I had heard that the bike path has intermittently been closed off. We were able to get through, but we saw the closure signs and where they had started work.
As we climbed Old Chena Ridge Road (now much of it is paved) I saw the entrance to a trail that parallels much of Knightsbridge Road on the downhill side. I had almost forgotten about that. We then hit Chena Ridge Road for a bit before dropping into Canterbury Drive. I had created a route on Ride with GPS, but after a we deviated off it and never only touched back on it briefly at times, so I used the RwGPS maps and Google Maps to make a route on the fly.
I asked Kevin, who is relatively new to Fairbanks, if he knew about the Koponen Open Space trails. He didn't, so I took him to the trailhead off Katya Court. I was tempted to try the trails, but I don't know how they would be on a gravel bike. So we climbed up Chena Hills Drive (much of it paved) back to Chena Ridge Road. By then I had decided we should do the Knightsbridge trail, so we backtracked to that. It's a fun little trail and fine for gravel bikes, though there was one big tree across the trail. That trail starts on Old Chena Ridge Road and follows an old drainage ditch before popping out onto Knightsbridge. The trail continues out to the Chena Ridge Road, but that part is really overgrown.
When we got back to Chena Ridge Road, we noticed a 4-wheeler trail heading downhill and paralleling Chena Ridge Road. But I wanted to head over to Crestmont, since I wanted to check out a trail that connects Crestmont to Yak Estates. It was fine on the lower end, so that might be part of a future MM ride. We rode to the end of Crestmont and Englewood Court (where some kids told us not to rob the house at the end of the road) then headed back to Chena Ridge Road.
From there we headed down the 4-wheeler trail and tried a spur power line trail to Kentshire but were turned back by swamp. (For some reason, swamp is not appealing to me when I'm on a gravel bike!) Then it was back to the start, bypassing a lot of cars in line due to the construction. We asked a flagger when we could go, and after a quick radio check, he let us through. That construction looks like it’s needed, but it’s quite a mess right now. It's supposed to be done in a couple of weeks. Either avoid that if you can -- or ride a bike! It's a lot of faster!
06/08/2026
Report by Eric
Time for an old dog to REPRESENT!
Well, it rained and rained all day. Then evening came and finally…it rained some more!
I was leading the MM ride tonight No one showed. I had talked myself into bailing. But on the way to the start and while waiting I saw a few bikers out in the rain and a bunch of runners, including quite a few kids with their parents. (Later figure out many were part of the Midnight Sun Run Couch to 10K program.) I thought, "I guess runners are tougher than bikers." But just as I was getting ready to leave, I thought, "No, bikers are tough, too!" I need to REPRESENT! So, I told myself I would at least do a short, heavily modified version of the ride.
I started riding in the rain, but it wasn't as bad as I figured. And as I started getting warm from riding, I felt better. Soon, I decided I would do slightly modified version of the ride. The more I rode, the better I felt. And about halfway through the rain stopped. And the gravel and dirt roads were not nearly as muddy as I figured, so I ended up doing the whole ride. Even stopped for a treat at Gold Hill store.
But sad news! The Silliest Stop Sign is gone! The post base is there, but there's no sign of the sign! But at least the Underwhelming Parks Highway Overlook is still pretty underwhelming. Still fun for a stop, though.
I came across the UAF farm fields and just as I did, the train came by, which made for a nice photo!
Then just as I was finishing up, a black fox trotted across the road behind me. I stopped and pulled out my phone, knowing I wouldn't have time to get a photo. Then it stopped and sat down! I got a pic, but then it gave kind of a bark/cry. It was looking back across the road. It gave several more cries. I figured it was trying to encourage a young one across. I looked a bit for the youngster, but I never did see it. I figured I wasn't helping by hanging around, so I left. I hope they made it across without getting hit.
As I finished I realized I had just gone on a road ride in the rain by myself. And I had a good time. I used to be an adamant MTBer. No road riding for me! Well, I guess an old dog can learn new tricks.
06/01/2026
Report by Garrett
For Monday's ride, we went on an established route - Garrett's Gambol - and put a few twists on it. We had five riders, including a Barb from Anchorage and her daughter Mila. We rode down Farmer's Loop Road to Ski Boot Hill, and jumped on the powerline trail for some off-road romping. We followed the powerline to where it links with Moose Trail, and then took a swift downhill to Yankovich. We took a short detour to visit the Musk Oxen at LARS, and then rode Miller Hill Road to Sheep Creek Road, and then back to campus to wrap up the ride. Overall, a good time was had by all and we didn't scare off our visiting cyclists!
Pic by Glenn
05/25/2026
Report by Travis
I had two riders last night with me. One on a road bike, so we skipped the silliest stop sign.
05/18/2026
Report by Garrett
Moderate Monday - Garrett’s Gambol AND Crosstown Commotion
Travis and I went roving for tonight’s ride! Took some scenic detours, logged extra kilometers, overall had fun.
04-27-2026
Report by Dean
So there were 3 of us Monday night. Matt, Allison and myself and what was especially neat is we all biked to campus. So we all had a warm up ride getting there and it was exactly that.
This ride started out in a high gear but we were mindful of Allison since we don't know her as well but Matt and I have comparable speeds. While leading, I kept looking back and we all stayed pretty close to each other until we got to the hills.
There is the first hill on Sheep Creek RD that takes you to Blacksheep. We continued on all the way down to Sheep Creek without stopping but pulled over at the Ann's Greenhouse pullout. We offered to Allison to take the front and let her set the pace but she agreed to stay in the back.
We continued on to O'brien and everyone was having a good time when we noticed another group of riders ahead of us on Goldstream RD. I briefly caught up to the two riders in the back of their group but didn't recognize them except caught Jonathan Chriest in their group.
So regrouping at the corner of Goldstream RD and Ballaine, we just had one more hill, that we knew of until Matt mentioned instead of going down the other side of Ballaine RD hill, it would be a more adventurous to up Goldfinch RD to Dalton Trail to Aleyska rd to Yanchovich.
I noticed there were little cold pockets in those hilly neighborhoods but when we rode down back to Sheep Creek RD on Miller Hill, the temperature really dropped about 10 degrees if I had to guess.
Rode back on Sheep Creek back to campus where we all said great ride and then all rode off in different directions. Great ride and everyone had fun!