Pictures from Biking on the Denali Park Road

I appear to be locked in a battle to keep my blog alive. I have more posts pending from trips that came before this one, but I'd rather scramble the order of my posts and my activities rather than just continue to build the backlog. Without further ado:

Spring has sprung early in Alaska this year, which is actually fine by me. When Jay suggested that we go biking on the Denali Park Road, I said "yay!" and we launched. Because it's early season, we were able to drive much further than you normally can, which made a good launching point for an out-and-back bike ride on the road. It was my first real ride of the season, my fat bike having been moth-balled for much of the spring while I skied instead. My ass and knees suffered from the hours in the saddle, and by the end I was not tired, but I was having a fairly difficult time moving the bike forward. Jay rode the entire Iditarod trail to Nome about six weeks prior, so my whinging seemed rather quaint to him.

Starting out.

Beginning the climb to Sable Pass. 

At first I was like "bro! A wolf!" Then I was like, "no, bro. I think that's a coyote." Then Jay been like "bro, no coyotes here Tots a wolf."

We chased it up the road for a ways, then it trotted parallel to the road for quite some time, so we were able to watch it for a satisfyingly long time.

With the benefits of optics and digital zoom, it fairly clearly emerges as a coyote. Or perhaps a hybrid, since evidently they exist. At the very least I'm quite sure it's not a dog, and definitely not a horse or chicken.

It trotted up the hill and dropped into an adjacent side valley, far enough away that we decided to return our focus to the matter at hand - bicycle riding. 

The descent down from Sable Pass was difficult to photograph. I worried that I would break my camera if I crashed going 40mph with one hand on the handle bars. And then, as an afterthought, I considered that that would be rather uncomfortable, as well. 

Jay is majestic.

Jay is a hot-doggin' cool kid. I think he's sponsored by Red Bull.

Heading up to Polychrome Pass. 

It was an exceptionally lovely day. 

The bridge over the Toklat River. We vaguely planned to go further, but I announced that my butt was beginning to hurt and that if we were to turn around that my butt would reach a total pain level that was lower, which would be fine with me. Jay interpreted that as me wanting to turn around. "I didn't say that," I clarified. 

This particular photo composition was Jay's idea. There isn't a creative bone in my body. 

On some of the long downhills I jumped up on the hill to get photos of Jay blasting by on the outside corners. I wanted to take a slow-shutter photo of Jay, where I panned along with him and blurred the background but kept him clear. I didn't really succeed. My lack of skill is partly to blame, but my SD card was also fucking up in burst mode and refusing to write. So Jay would ride by and I would shoot 20 pictures, but then I would get an error mode. Jay was willing to ride back up and ride by again, but he was only willing to do that once.

Some, rather than with artistic blurring to show the speed, just came out as blurry photos, spiting good composition and scenery. 

Continuing the parade of photographic difficulties, there was dust all over the lens. I tried to clearn it, but I wasn't actually able to wipe it off, and instead just chased it around the lens. I did a reasonable job of taking off the dust digitally, but there was a ton.

I think I like this one best. 

This was shot at 1/50th of a second, hence Jay being blurry. The plan was to pan along with him as he went by - I shot a bunch of photos, but only the first two recorded. Thwarted by technology.

(amusingly, I didn't have my backup SD card because I hadn't gotten it back yet from my friend Bob, who I loaned it to on a past trip when he forgot his card. Jay took pictures for the first half of the trip before realizing he didn't even have an SD card in his camera, since he'd loaned it to Heath, after he'd forgotten his (and who is also a professional photographer) on previous trip. We'd both been hosed by our friends.) 

Almost back. I was doing my best to coast with my butt off the seat.

Jay went to investigate if the overflow ice of the Tek was rideable. It was, but it was surprisingly slippery in spite of being very sunburned. With studded tires, Jay said it would be good riding. 

Photogenic. 

From on the bridge. 

Thanks Jay!