FTTN Rides are FCC group rides held most Tuesday evenings throughout the winter. Find out more about FTMNs HERE.
04-06-2026
Report by Eric
Nikki led us on another tour of the Rosie Creek area, this time on different trails than last week.
Just Dean and I showed up. (Well, plus one, but more on that soon.) Too bad. It was a glorious night out. Hope others got out elsewhere.
Nikki had said she was tired from her 40+ mile running weekend, so she would lead from behind. Dean and I were grateful she was so tired when we were huffing and puffing while trying to keep up with Nikki on the climb up Christmas Tree Trail. (Yeah, she wasn't leading from behind very well.)
We took Pagh Road to Moose Wallow and headed down it and immediately started to wallow! The trail was really punchy. We let air out a couple of times, which helped. But a biker before us had put in some good sized ruts and a runner/hiker had put in a lot of foot punch-holes. Probably some moose holes in there, too. We had a lot of fun trying to navigate through all that while not punching through ourselves. (Well, at least I had a lot of fun.) Dean did a bit of punching through and falling, of course.
Things were much firmer back on the main trails, so we cruised. We stopped once to look at a trail cam and listen to a great horned owl, but mostly we cruised.
Even on the packed trail Dean had some struggles with punching through. I threatened to change his nickname from last week -- Rodeo Dean -- to Lead Ass Dean. He didn't punch through after that, so I must have motivated him.
Just as we rode onto the Rosie Creek Road for the ride back to the start, we heard a yell from behind. It was Stephanie! She had arrived to the start a few minutes late. She had seen Dean disappear down one of the trails but couldn't figure out which one it was. She cruised around a bit, exploring the trails, but didn't come across us until the very end. Ah well. She said she had a great ride and the FTMN gave her motivation to get out on a glorious spring night!
Overflow is getting to be an issue out there. Be careful. We avoided the Beaver Pond crossing but found a good-sized overflow on Moose Wallow. Fortunately, it was frozen, but we took care crossing it.
Pics by Nikki and Eric
03-30-2026
Report by Eric
Nikki led five of us on an awesome ride of some of the Rosie Creek trails. We even got to do a trail that was new to me, which always makes me happy! Nikki kept us moving so it was a good workout. But she did allow us a little chat time on the trail, so we got a little social time. And got some good social time at the end of the ride, since it is so warm out and so light out we could stand around and chat. What a wonderful time of the year!
And we may have a new nickname for Dean! He's still falling down occasionally, but he's doing a great job of throwing down a leg, righting his bike, and pedaling on, all in one quick motion. Maybe we should call him "Rodeo Dean"!
03-16-2026
Report by Garrett
This ride was a fun trek around the Goldstream Valley trails. We ditched the planned route to wing it, and nobody got hurt or stuck!
Four riders showed up at Ivory Jack’s parking lot. We rode westward to O'Brien Street, then under the power line that heads toward Sheep Creek Road. Spotting the fun side track I nicknamed “the Swirl”, we rode that to the hidden junction that we took a right on over Goldstream Creek toward Miller Hill Road. We turned off the road onto the Tanana Valley Railroad Trail and headed back to Sheep Creek Road and over the railroad tracks.
Still feeling an itch to ride, we south down the Dredge Trail to the power line. Deciding that was enough for one night, we turned headed north on the power line and took the Boat Trail back to the Dredge Trail. Then we returned to Ivory Jack’s from there.
Pic by Ben
03-09-2026
Report by Eric
Garrett led Jonathan and I on a brisk ride of the Goldstream Valley west loop. Trails are in good shape. Great shape, for this year. Only a few squirrelly areas.
Spring and the time change blessed us with sunshine! We never needed lights. The sun started setting when we were about halfway through. But the temps dropped then. We started at about -4F and ended at about -14F, but once we were moving we warmed up nicely.
Jonathan brought his new e-helmet to keep his noggin warm. What's an e-helmet, you ask? Apparently, it's a bike helmet without many vents. I guess they don't expect people on e-bikes to generate much in the way or sweat or heat. That must be it, because the e-helmet didn't seem to help Jonathan think any better!
Or maybe it did. He took some nice photos. Check them out!
01-19-2026
Report by Dean (who is training to ride the Iditarod Trail Invitational to McGrath)
I took off from home around 530 to get to the ride by 6. Pretty tired after all the training I put in all weekend but whatever.
When I showed up to the pullout next to Anne's Greenhouses we filled the pullout with everyone's vehicles. 8 riders including myself. Everyone was excited to give their Zwift trainers a break for the night and to actually come outside to play instead. Very mild temps but Goldstream Valley is always a little chilly as soon as you drop down.
Several riders mentioned they didn't know Goldstream that well or at all, so I had a great chance to help them experience it. I rode the valley trails with a loaded bike just two days prior, and I thought it was the best part of my route all day. Travis mentioned he rode it on Sunday and said it was fast, but our Monday night ride was much faster.
Overall it was a very fast ride, and since we had done so well with time we had time to put in some extra credit miles. Ben or Travis mentioned instead of popping back out onto the bike path on Sheep creek, we could ride this little side trail up to the Hay Fields. Finally some elevation on this ride! The ride up was challenging but certainly rideable. While we were riding the Hay Fields and going down one of the hills, Dan mentioned that's the fastest he's ever gone on a fatbike!
Travis was my caboose all night and I noticed he stayed with someone at the bottom of a hill in the Hay Field. Not sure what happened but I'm glad we always have cabooses for these rides for that reason.
Everyone had a great time. Ended up being about 11 miles for everyone. Goldstream trails are so good right now.
Photos by Travis (who said he saw a green shooting star on the ride)
12/08/2025
Report by Eric
We decided to go high with this ride. Temps were in the minus 20sF down low, but our ride started at just 6F below.
I led the five of us out the upper part of the O'Connor Creek East Ridge Trail. We rode little on Pine Wood and Green Leaf roads (off the Pandora Road complex), but mostly we rode on trail, which had been nicely groomed by neighbor Carl S. last week. Thank you, Carl! Everyone was impressed by how nicely the trail rode. And people on the ride who have done the trail in summer commented on how the trail -- dubbed Spanky's by the late, great Rocky Reifenstuhl because of all the roots -- is so different in winter. The snow fills in all the bumps and your bike doesn't spank you anymore!
We did an out-and-back, keeping up a steady pace with only a few stops so that we stayed relatively warm. We went out several miles to an intersection -- go down and to the right and you end up on Eldorado Creek Trail; go up and to the left and you end up on the Old Murphy Dome Road Powerline Trail.
And everyone got some of Corrine's delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies to fuel their ride or for recovery. Or both!
Pics by Corrine and Eric
12/01/2025
Report by Eric
We lost one and gained one!
Glenn led this ride on the Ester Dome Singletrack Trails, but we lost him in a hurry. Something he ate didn't sit well with him, so he had to turn back. But not before entertaining us with a nice crash! He spun out on a short, steep hill and couldn't catch himself before tumbling down. Yikes! Fortunately, neither he nor his bike were hurt.
But we had Dave on this ride, his first Fat Tired Monday Night ride since getting his hip replaced. He says he's still getting into riding shape, so he rode caboose. Actually, he almost always rides caboose.
Besides Glenn's delightful crash, there were a couple of others. Dave went down. As did I. The trails had been groomed wonderfully, but all the previous fatbikers over the weekend had chewed up the surface, making for a bit squirrelly conditions in places. Letting out some air helped quite a bit.
We did the Outer Loop. When we got to the St. Patrick cutoff, Dave peeled off. He lives near the bottom of Ester Dome and had ridden to the start. The rest of us headed back to the trailhead.
But when stopped at the sign, Travis and Dean decided they wanted a bit more riding. They decided to do the Inner Loop. The rest of us called it a night. But Travis and Dean only did part of the Inner Loop. They got mixed up and at the intersection to the connector trail, they took the connector to the Outer Loop. So, they decided to do the rest of the Outer Loop backward from what we had just done. Animals!
And by the time we finished our ride, Glenn was recovering but bummed he missed the ride.
11/24/2025
Report by Eric
Jonathan led six of us -- including new-to-the-ride Katie -- on a ride through Goldstream Valley. Travis arrived just as we were taking off, but he was fine with catching up to us -- which he did, rather quickly.
We had considered riding the Ester Dome Singletrack (a bit warmer), but Joel from Goldstream Sports was just heading out to groom the EDS, so we wanted to let the snow set up after the grooming. (Riding too soon after the groomer doesn't give the snow enough time to set up and get hard,)
The Goldstream Sports shop rides had ridden the valley trails on both Saturday and Sunday. Joel let us know the trails were "rideable," but what did those quote mean? We found out!
"Rideable" -- at least for trails in low, swampy areas -- means be prepared for lots of tussocks and four-wheeler ruts! Yeah, we rode them, but there was a lot of "falling" off your bike. (The "falling" means you have to put a leg down. but you don't necessarily do a face plant. Though at least one person -- me -- did a nice face plant. Fortunately, I missed all the sticky-uppy branches.)
But that was all mostly on the Tanana Valley Railroad Trail, which is south of Goldstream Creek. After we hit Ballaine Road, Jonathan led us back on the standard north-of-Goldstream route, and we had more flat and solid ponds, roads, and higher trails, which meant a lot less tussocks.
The creek crossing between Dawn Drive and Sauna Avenue was fine. A little low but solid. The trail back to Sheep Creek Road was mostly fine. A bit chilly at the creek crossing, but not too bad.
All in all, a good night out on the bikes. And Dean the Animal, who had ridden to the ride from home, rode back. If he keeps that up, he'll do fine in the ITI to McGrath.
Pics by Ben and Eric
11/17/2025
Report by Dean
Interesting and fast-paced night!
At first it was just myself and Remmy, who had an orange Corvus Akio that he got from Jeff at Beaver Sports. Very nice bike!!
While we were just hitting the trailhead, I noticed two vehicles coming up Waterford Road. I thought about waiting, just in case it was more riders, but usually when something like happens it's not, so we continued on. Remmy said he's not new to fatbiking so I set a fast pace up the trail and kept checking on Remmy. He was always right there behind me. We went all the way to the pipeline without stopping. We were both breathing pretty hard and so took a minute to catch our breath. We shed some layers since we were quite sweaty. Proceeding down the pipeline, it was nice to have some downhill to cool off a bit.
We made it down to Old Murphy Dome Road where we normally turn around when doing this ride. We saw two dog teams so we stayed out of the way while they went west down the trail toward Spankys trail. Finally we started to head back.
We noticed more lights heading our way. Initially we thought they were more dog teams, but it was 3 more riders trying to catch up to us! It was Travis, Myles and Hannah. We had a quick meeting and agreed that we were all doing well on time and wanted to do more, so we headed in the direction the dog teams had gone. That starts pretty flat, but then there's lots of climbing up the powerline trail. We turned around at the entrance to the connector trail that takes you to Spanky's. The descent coming back was so fun.
Overall, the trails throughout the entire night were better from when I was just there two days prior.
Fun, fast, and furious night, and glad the three riders caught up to us. Maybe next time I will wait longer just in case.
We were going so fast last night that I totally forgot about pictures!
11/10/2025
Report by Eric
Just me and Dean tonight, but we had a great old time! First we stopped to harass still-recovering-from-his-hip-surgery Dave before riding up to the ED Singletrack. We did a little of the Outer Loop and a little of the Inner Loop.
The very first part of the trail off St. Patrick was groomed and it was awesome! But the groomer turned around quickly. The trail wasn't too bad after that, but you didn't want to get off the main track. Lots of little divots where people had done that. We did it a couple of times, too.
The Inner Loop hadn't seen much bike traffic and Helter Skelter hadn't seen any traffic. I jokingly said to Dean we should do it, and he said sure! Dean's game for all sorts of stuff. He's great! So we slipped and slid our way down Helter Skelter and then carefully made out way down the Inner Loop to the connector trail, which had had less traffic than the Inner Loop. Tons o’ fun!
The bottom part of the Outer Loop had had some fat tired traffic, so it was a bit easier. Still, you had to be a bit careful.
We finished up that and then headed over to the Boat Trail. I wanted to do that after the great ride I had the other day with Erica and Nikki and Corrine. Part of the trail was more packed (i.e. less fun) than last time due to more traffic. But the rest was like last time, lots of ice and tussocks. Super challenging! Even more brush was hanging across the trail this time. I told Dean it was all good training for the Iditarod Trail Invitational, which he is signed up for!
We finally got to the RR tracks and Sheep Creek Road, where Dean rode back home (he rode from his house, he’s an animal!), and I rode back to my truck.
Pics by Eric
