(To see other Sunday Brunch ride reports, click on the link above.)
Sunday Brunch Rides are casual-to-moderate paced rides with an incorporated brunch stop. They are scheduled for every first and third Sunday through the summer (though occasional rides will be held on Saturdays for brunch places that are closed on Sunday). See the ride page HERE.
07/19/2026
Report by Matt
Just five of us this weekend, but we still had a fun ride.
Nita, Dylan and I met up with Eric and Corrine at Morris Thompson before taking off to Farmers Loop via the Steese Highway bike path. We chatted about recent trips most of the way around and over to UAF where we headed up to west ridge and the “curvaceous” road in front of the Geophysical Institute and the fun bomb down the road towards Patty Center where we ran into the group of Lazy-ish Sunday riders who were just getting ready to head out to the end of the pavement on Murphy Dome.
From there we headed towards downtown and I got to show Eric and Corrine some of the “hidden mountain bike trails” in the woods behind Growden Park. We cut through the neighborhood and back up to First Ave and downtown where we found out the wait at the Crepery was looking like an hour or so, so we headed over to McCafferty’s instead, which was a quiet and delicious alternative. (Though we were bummed to miss out on the crepes. They are delicious!)
All in all a nice ride for a Sunday morning.
Pics by Corrine and Eric
07/12/2026
Report by Matt with additions by Nita
Crave.907 in North Pole
Nita and I headed over to the Morris Thompson for the start of the ride not sure how many people were going to opt for the roughly 40 mile round trip and got pleasantly surprised with 6.5 people joining us at the start. (Ryan, Amy, Steve, Phil, Stephanie and Elias, and Glenn)
--We opted to ride the tandem today because, as the book says, it's all about THE JOY OF TOGETHERNESS.--
The ride out was fairly uneventful and we even talked Steve into going the whole way into North Pole instead of bailing at Badger Rd. We ended up meeting up with Suzanne and Monica (who started from CHSR and Nordale) about halfway down Badger, and the group headed towards Crave. The group split up around Speedway, but we caught back up to them by the time we hit the North Pole city limits. We ended up filling a good chunk of the front of the strip mall with makeshift bike parking, and settled in for coffee and snacks.
--Brunch at Crave was lovely. We spent slightly longer than we anticipated, but they were unaware of our incoming group and very surprised by the sudden rush of customers. Still, it was good food, good company, and good conversation.--
--We mounted up to ride back and immediately I started to grapple with the newness of my saddle. Even though its the same saddle I ride on my other bikes, it only has miles from Friday's shop ride on it and that obviously was not enough to break it in. So I spent most of the return trip frustrating Matt with my constant shifting to find a better position.--
Heading back to the start, Monica and Suzanne opted to join us all the way into town instead of heading back to their starting location. Something about how Monica needed more flat miles and Suzanne had never done a metric century outside. 🤷♂️ We made it almost to the front gate of Ft. Wainwright and heard a big Pop! which was Glenn’s rear tire burping tubeless sealant everywhere and the bead coming loose. We tried to re-seat it but decided that a half mile walk to the intersection at GARS and a ride from Phil was going to be the quickest way back home for Glenn. At least it happened there and not further down the bike path.
Nita and I headed back to Morris Thompson with Monica and Suzanne, and hung out for a little bit to see if everyone was headed back before we headed home. Glenn texted me and we found out he had gotten a ride home from Phil (which was good because he rode his bike to the start of the ride). Not quite the ride we planned for, but good to hear that everything worked out in the end.
06-07-2026
Report by Evee
Glenn and I rode today! Glenn had never ridden the airport loop before and was glad to find a route that was flat and low traffic. If you haven't done the loop, I highly encourage people to check it out HERE.
Low traffic other than Mon-Fri 8-5ish. Other places to stop and eat include East Ramp Pizza, Black Spruce Brewery and Alaska Coffee Roasting Company. Lulu's hit the spot
05-17-2026
Report by Matt
Nita, Dylan, and I rode over to WVHS where the ride was starting from and found out that Glenn, Travis and Sarah (with the daughter in tow) all rode over as well. We did a quick lap out to Geist to make sure that nobody had parked over at ACRC before starting on the planned route. When we got to the light at Ballaine and Farmers Loop the group split up with Travis and Sarah deciding that they were going to skip the climb up Auburn Drive and just meet up with us somewhere on Yankovich (probably a smart choice because Travis was pulling the trailer with their daughter in it).
The rest of us powered to the top of Auburn where we took a brief rest stop to take a group photo before the short and steep climb up to Red Fox. This week’s route roughly follows the Skarland 12-mile route, just along neighborhood roads instead of the trail system, so it was fun to see Glenn figure out where we were during the ride. A quick hop over the top of Ballaine Hill and over to Goldfinch led us to a quick descent down most of Dalton trail before following some more neighborhood gravel roads where we popped out just before LARS on Yankovich and met back up with Travis and Sarah. We made our way back through UAF to Geist where the group split again with Travis and Sarah heading straight to ACRC (something about their daughter being promised a sweet treat 😆) while the rest of us followed Birch Lane around and back to ACRC to put on a few extra miles.
Ended up being a super nice day to get out and ride, especially with Nita and I having our bikes about 90% loaded for our upcoming San Juans trip in a couple weeks.
Photos by Nita and Matt
05-02-2026
Report by Nita with help from Matt
Okay, so it sounds backwards that we held our first ever Sunday Brunch Ride on a Saturday, but given the recent weather and tomorrow's bike swap, it made the most sense.
Seven of us showed up for today’s ride (Matt, Nita, Dylan, Evee, Suzanne, Stephanie, and Dave).
We met up at DGGS (or Pita Place, for everyone that isn't Matt and doesn't know that acronym) and took off toward UAF. We took the path through the trees and opted to split into two groups: one for more climbing and the other for less climbing.
The less climbing group headed off for Farmers Loop and while the rest of us headed up to West Ridge. After taking the "curvaceous" route (description courtesy of Dave) around Geophysical, we headed back down the hill to Farmers Loop. We caught sight of the less climbing group right around the Mushers Hall, but couldn’t quite catch them until we got to the Johansen bike path.
We all regrouped at Johansen and College to debate fewer road crossings but more exhaust versus more road crossings but better scenery. We opted for the latter and took College to Little Owl. (Shoutout to the three different drivers who gave us ample room and didn't cut us off to turn, best vehicle interactions I've had in ages!)
We all stopped for coffee and snacks (shout out to our tiny coffee club and the cutest to go cups ever!) and enjoyed some conversation before making the rest of the way back to the start. Definitely a nice morning to be outside and looking forward to more of these rides throughout the summer.
10 out of 10 ride. Everyone had a great time and is excited for the next one. Even the teenager had a good time and, quite notably, didn't complain once.
Pic courtesy of Matt and Nita
