2008 Tuesday Ride Report - May 20, 2008 -- Skyline Ridge

By Tom Clark

Our plot is working well. This week we left about 7:20 PM. We'll probably do the same next week, then push it up to 7:15. Who knows, someday we might even get started at 7PM... This is after years of getting going at 7:30 PM, so it might take a while to get everyone used to the idea.

23 riders met at the Mushers Hall at the Jeff Studdert racegrounds on Farmers Loop. There was the usual milling around before the ride, much chatting and meeting of familar and new faces. Ben and Heike found a "ground wooble" (I don't know what it's called -- you know, a patch of ground that when you stomp on it acts like liquid, with waves radiating out in all directions?) and amused themselves and other until it was time to go.

We set off west on Farmers Loop and turned up Ski Boot Hill Road, veering left at the intersection and following the road until we found a way onto the powerline, paralleling our route just uphill of us. We continued west on the powerline, through rollers up and down without incident, until...

We noticed that our ride leader was noticably late in catching up to us. Liam did show up eventually, pushing his bike up the hill. Turns out his cleat came off his shoe, stuck in the pedal. Once removed, we determined that one screw had just come unscrewed, while the other had taken part of the backing plate with it. Tools came out from all over, and within twenty minutes the portion of rusty, broken backing plate had been removed from the screw, the plate turned around, and the cleat reinstalled in the other set of holes on the backing plate. Trail repairs are sometimes surprisingly good. Uber mechanic Pete Wilda is a good guy to have along on a ride.

We rode south at this point, taking the trail that leads to Wolverine. We followed Wolverine partway down the hill, slowly, looking for the trail that exits to the right. We zoomed the trail, dodging trees and bumping the roots, going straight across the four-way intersection. Somewhere in here I stopped to take pictures and I managed to get some good ones; the light was very nice. We regrouped on Red Fox, very near the top of the hill. Then, it was a boring climb up Moose Trail. Passing cars raise dust, and instead of having trail obstacles as a diversion, there is nothing but pedaling going on.

At the top of Moose Trail we got back on the powerline and rode north, covering ground that we'd already been on. Not for long though. Within a minute we were back in the woods, riding uphill toward the old KUAC transmitter site. There we regrouped and listened to Liam give a little history of the area. Evidently it used to be military property and had seismic sensors that were part of a system to detect underground nuclear explosions, Cold War era. We picked our way past the site, riding in between a couple of bollards installed in the trail to discourage motorists. Things got interesting at this point.

We rode this trail all the way up to Rocky Top (or Pika, or whatever it is called) and hung out there for a bit, getting regrouped. There was a splitting of the ways, with folks that wanted sleep more than they wanted fun following Liam down the hill to the cars, and the rest of us (15) going down the After Hours trail. If you haven't done this trail on a bike, you are missing out. Amazingly, nobody crashed or got hurt, so we rode up the 4WD trail, and took a left, again riding up to Rocky Top or whatever. It should be noted that the discussion of the the F.A.R.T.S. scale came up again... It might be time to officially publish the white paper on the subject.

Back at the top, we rode the Secret Trail (opposite of the After Hours trail) and came out on the powerline that supplies the old KUAC transmitter. Again, other than a few unscheduled tree contacts, there were no injuries, so we rode down the hill, crossed the "KUAC transmitter road", and took a hard left on the powerline that we'd come up, hours ago. Most of us did anyway. One rider got ahead of me and didn't hear me shouting to turn left and rode to the bottom of the hill. He gamely ran his bike back up the hill and we proceeded east.

We followed the powerline as far as we could, over logs and stumps. It gets more passable each year. At Ski Boot Hill road, we went downhill to Farmers Loop and turned left, back to the cars. Liam (what a guy) was still there, with the box of snacks and cooler of sodas. There was general agreement that the two trails built by Jon Underwood (After Hours and Secret Trail) are the best singletrack this close in to Fairbanks. Thanks Jon!

All in all, a great ride. We covered 14.5 miles with 2.0 hours riding time. Another hour was spent at various regroupings, though probably fifteen to twenty of that was spent with Liam's cleat. Our ride leader spent most of his time somewhere near the back of the pack, in true Doug Burnside fashion. Perhaps this should be where the ride leader should be. It makes sense, in a keeping-the-group-together way.

This is sort of a Post-Script, but anyway, on my ride home I was noticing more and more erratic chain/cassette behavior, and sluggish, erratic shifting. The problem had actually been building for a while and it seemed to get worse all of a sudden. While pedaling, I looked at the cassette, and it was wobbling and moving about. I stopped and pulled the rear wheel off, and sure enough, the cassette retainer had come completely unscrewed, allowing the loose rings to jingle around on the free-hub, and the remaining cog assembly to move back and forth. I tightened it as best I could with a screwdriver, and WOW! It works great again. Nice crisp shifts all the way home!