Riding Ice
The driveway was glare ice. Recent rains had flash frozen to the ground like a glazed donut. As to be expected school was canceled, I had a day off! All of the side roads were slick as snot.
I had put my studded tires on my fat bike a couple of days ago and I figured that today would be the perfect opportunity to ride the ice. A few years ago I invested in a fat tire bike. My thinking at the time was that winters in Talkeetna have been getting milder and I didn’t want to limit myself to recreating outside for just part of the year. A fat tire bike is a perfect vehicle for in-between days of slop or ice. Although it was expensive at the time, I have no regrets and my bike gets a lot of use.
Carefully I pushed off in the driveway and peddled around in circles to get the feel. The metal studs dug into the ice making considerable crunching noise as I cruised along. It sounded as if I were riding over a path of Captain Crunch breakfast cereal.
I tested my rear brakes on a flat section of the driveway. The bike skidded to a stop creating three parallel lines carved in the ice. Not bad. Next I tried using both front and rear brakes and although I stopped even quicker I didn’t like it. It was not as stable and I didn’t like both tires locking up as I was sliding.
“See you in a while”, I said as I set off down the driveway on my bike. The plan was to meet at the Denali Brewing tasting room in about an hour.
“Okay" she said,"have fun.”
I made my way onto the four wheeler trail on Yoder and then turned down Winterset towards Benka lake. The Benka Loop, as I call it is my go-to four miler from the house. Today it was a luge course. The crux move was a downhill chute that pinched into a big puddle at the bottom. Was the puddle frozen? I wasn’t sure. Slowly I crunched my way down the hill braking and scraping my way to the puddle. I was able to carefully break through the partially frozen puddle. I focused on good balance and before long I was safely on the other side.
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| The Crux move. |
I met up with Tamra soon afterwords at the brewery and we had a good time with our friends Tracy and Mike. Tracy and Tamra are big volunteers of the Talkeetna Bachelor’s auction each year and this year Tracy's husband Mike was sweet-talked into making a huge boom box playing to the 80’s theme. Mike is a super-smart guy and managed to wire it up so that the lights would bump along with the music. No doubt the ladies will go crazy for it on Bachelor’s auction night hopefully translating into more money spent/ donated to our local charities. Click here to find out more
As the light began to fade, I climbed aboard my bike, buckled my helmet and peddled my way across the street to the bike path that was, as you might have guessed, glare ice.
The studded tires made easy work of the smooth icy surface. For about a half of a mile I wheeled over the top of some ice skate marks. Cool. Someone else was making lemonade out of lemons and I hoped to run into them further down the bike path to see who it was but it didn’t materialize. I turned down my road and then onto our back drive as the light dwindled.
As I neared the house a familiar silhouette stood before me blocking the path. I stopped. The shadowy figure walked slowly out of my way and into the bushes. Not wanting to miss an opportunity such as this, I peddled to the house and returned a few minutes later with just the right tool.
“Did you get one?” she asked. Without speaking I closed the front door and showed her the dressed out breast meat of a fresh ruffed grouse. “Awesome!”
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| Ho rs Devours night. Tender Cutlets of Ruff Grouse seasoned with Alder smoked sea salt and black pepper sauteed in coconut oil with a splash of soy sauce to finish. Mexican flag toothpicks are optional but encouraged. |
