By Travis
Four of us met at Birch Hill Rec Area for a 16-mile ride with lots of climbing. Travis, Ken, Carolyn, and Glenn. We weren’t in a rush to leave the parking lot until Carolyn mentioned that she had to be back early for her kid’s bedtime. We took the cue.
We headed out quickly through the neighborhood, up two short hills, and over to CHSR. We went up Rainbow Drive past the pet resort, spying some horses and ponies in the field, and then climbed the steep hill on Highland way and what I call Steele Creek extension. We regrouped and then started the climb up Gilmore Trail road.
Any thoughts of moderating were abandoned when Ken started pushing the pace and my competitive spirit briefly came out. We crested the hill and stopped at Maya lane. Glenn and Carolyn weren’t far behind.
We had a quick chat and Carolyn turned around to return to the start. The rest of us bombed down my favorite gravel descent in Fairbanks: Maya-Violet to Steele Creek Road. We turned left and cruised out the pavement to CHSR. We crossed and followed the (very loose) gravel path on the south side of the road to the Hot Springs Gas station for an ice cream break. Glenn and I both fueled up with moose tracks ice cream.
After the break we continued battling loose gravel over to Bennett Road, climbed up Bennett to Fabian, cruised through the horse pastures/neighborhood up Hobbit Hill to Eastview and returned to CHSR. We made our way to Bias drive where we encountered some wicked washboards, climbed East Birch Hill road, and made it back to the parking lot about 8:30.
Photos by Glenn
