Valley offers lots of choices to local mountain bikers

June 29, 2007

By Will Elliott / Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Outside Alaska, mountain bikers have dirt jumps, ski areas and long singletrack trails to ride. Less Alaska terrain is specifically tailored for mountain biking, but the Mat-Su Valley more than makes up for that with its vast network of four-wheeler trails, abandoned roads and other backcountry rights-of-way.

For touring, accessing remote areas where a four-wheeler can't go or just hitting jumps and crashing through the brush in body armor, Valley trails are varied and numerous enough to be called some of the best in the state, the Valley Mountain Bikers and Hikers Web site claims. That local nonprofit leads trail work and outings.

Some of those trails are right in town. Crevasse Moraine trail system near the Borough landfill has trails designed for bikers, from wide roads to singletrack. VMBaH and other volunteers maintain those trails, as well as those at Kepler-Bradley lakes on the Glenn Highway. The two trails connect with a spur leading to the University of Alaska farm on Trunk Road.

Another favorite is the Eklutna Lake trail, maintained by Alaska State Parks. Accessed from the Eklutna Lake campground behind the Twin peaks and Mount POW/MIA, the trail runs alongside the lake to a public use cabin, mountain waterfalls and the Eklutna Glacier.

Four-wheelers are allowed on that trail, as are snowmachines in the winter, but the same is not true of the Gold Mint Trail at Hatcher Pass. Paralleling the Little Susitna to its headwaters at the Mint Glacier, the 8-mile trail takes awhile on foot. Riding a bike speeds things up considerably, though full-suspension models (shocks in the front and back) are less jarring over the roots and rocks. While brush and beavers have reclaimed a good deal of the Gold Mint Trail, this year improvements are planned. Bridges and boardwalks in soupy parts make for challenging riding.

It's not far from that trailhead to a similar trail, just over the Willow side of the pass. There the Cragie Creek trail runs 8 miles across the tundra from the Hatcher Pass road to Dogsled Pass, offering a fast downhill on the way back to the car. Less traveled options abound along the Glenn Highway north of Palmer.

Mark Gronewald, owner of Wildfire Designs cyclery in Palmer, said dry weather this summer is good for those trails, which otherwise might be muddy. Gronewald builds custom cycles with extra wide tires for winter riding and wilderness races like the Iditasport race to Nome. His bikes have been used to win that race and others, like the Yukon Arctic Ultra, on a number of occasions.

Along the highway, roads run north from Chickaloon toward the Talkeetnas, connecting with four-wheeler trails and mining roads in that area. Farther east at the Chickaloon River more trails run into the mountains, and the Permanente limestone mine is a possible destination. Similar trails follow King River and Purinton Creek. The Boulder Creek trail, Castle Mountain mining road, Chickaloon-Knik-Nelchina trail and many others are other Glenn Highway options. Local clubs like VMBaH or online mountain biking message boards are good places to get specific information.

As a few unprepared snowmachiners find out every year, one of the problems with a vehicle that speeds the rider into the wilderness is that once broken down, it leaves him or her in the wilderness. That's true of bikes, but a lot has to fail on a cycle before it becomes unrideable, making mountain biking a reliable avenue for exploring Valley trails.

Riding through - not over - logs and other obstacles is a good way to break spokes, but most brakes allow enough clearance for a bent wheel to squeeze through, and brakes themselves aren't strictly a necessity, as a few skid-stopping urban fixed-wheel riders maintain. If a bike won't shift gears, riders still have two speeds to work with - pedal and get off and push. Manufacturers like Kona already make single-speed mountain bikes with this in mind, citing the lower cost and reliability of the simpler design.

Finally, not even a chain is strictly necessary, since by standing on one pedal and kicking with the other foot, riders can propel a damaged bike like a scooter slowly back to the trailhead.

Most problems are easily avoided, said local rider Richard Clayton. Clayton owns Alaska Bicycle Center in Wasilla, which sells and services bicycles.

&#8220I'd take a spare tube, a pump and a chain tool. That'll pretty much get you out of any bad situation,” he said - except bears or an injurious crash.

Racing quietly through the woods, mountain bikers don't give much warning to bears who might be sharing the trail. Some wilderness riders carry guns, but those aren't allowed on the Denali National Park road, popular with mountain bikers and bears habituated to tour bus traffic. Although bears are less a problem on suburban trails like Crevasse Moraine or Kepler-Bradley, a solo biker could lie in the dirt all day after a crash without seeing another person. Riding with a partner would be a good idea in both circumstances.

While permits and regulations complicate a ride down the Denali Park road, the nearby Denali Highway between Cantwell and Paxon is an excellent tour through similar country. That dirt road, now subject to tour bus traffic, runs more than 130 miles through spruce forest and alpine tundra. The logistics of getting back to your car can be complicated, though, compared to the Denali Park road. There riders simply ride a Park Service bus into the park as far as they want, then bicycle back to the park entrance.

For more information on VMBaH, visit the group's Web site at www.vmbah.org or call 761-3636.

Contact Wildfire Designs at www.wildfirecycles.com or 745-2453 to learn more about the company's custom wide-tire bikes, or 373-2453 to reach Alaska Bicycle Center behind the Wasilla skate park.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.