Twenty Mile Travelogue
Posted on | July 26, 2004 | 108 Comments
This weekend, two roads diverged in the woods and in true Frostian fashion we took the one less traveled by. That my friends, have made all the difference. Our almost neat apartment looks disbelievingly disheveled. Last night we had to excavate our bed from under a Vesuvian pile of laundry that had erupted over the weekend choking most of the living and non-living space out of our house. My limbs feel unmovable, aching from sheer exhaustion after ten plus years of physical inactivity and add to this I have this strange sensation of being lost, akin to what is experienced by a fish out of water or a potato out of a couch.
The real culprit is the summer, it fills the sidewalks with eighty year old roller-bladers, four year old anglers toddling behind their families with rods six times their size to the nearest salmon run and spandex clad extra-terrestrials touring the earth on razor thin bikes. When this happens, either you’ll have to coup up inside your house without a sound so that your neighbors will think that you have fallen off the side of the planet and they will start making preparations to encroach into your property or you’ll have to get out and join the jovial hyper active summer crowd.
We started on Friday evening, testing the waters (or the trails in this case) to get in to the act of being the prototypical summer fun people, our accessory for fun – a couple of modest mountain bikes. (FYI: The municipality of Anchorage has 128 miles (206 km) of paved trails and 300 miles (482 km) of unpaved and wilderness trails, is ranked one of the top three biking cities in US by the Bicycling Magazine.) To ‘get in to the groove’, we did a beginner loop of about 12 miles on one of the numerous trail systems that wiggle its way thru’ the city and its surroundings and made our way back to the city after midnight in time for a pizza, a couple of beers and a dancing show of Northern Lights(Aurora Borealis) on the horizon. I am not sure whether I should thank Murphy’s Laws or rileen’s Curses (both are interchangeable these days I guess) for not taking the camera with me, anyway I missed the aurora picture.
Less traveled by, but “a road” all the same – if it was in India we’d call this ‘trail’ – “one Maruti-wide paved road with plenty of ‘passing’ space(shoulders) to overtake from left, right and center and even accommodate an occasional mini lorry, if required.” From the very beginning of the trail, wide turnouts reminiscent of freeway turnouts act as overlook spots framing the open surf blown views of the Pacific.
About two miles down the trail we hit the Westchester Lagoon. In summer, migratory birds, immigrate(slips away before locks catches me on ‘immigration’ issues) to this lake from the Gulf of Mexico (birds have it the easy way, much easier than Mexicans who have to sew themselves inside car seats and dashboards to immigrate) and in winter the birds fly back to Mexico and the Americans on ice-skates take over the lake.
Passing the Westchester lagoon, we reach the Earthquake Park(memorial for 1963 Good Friday Earth Quake)after about ten minutes. On exceptionally beautiful summer days a fortress of postcard photographers with huge barrels for cameras obstruct the glistening view of downtown Anchorage, seen across the Knik arm mudflats from this park. But it is only 2pm in the afternoon and the sun is at the zenith, not a good lighting source for the discerning photographer, so we were spared of the human wall and I take a shot. Click.
Twenty minutes and two uphill climbs later I am on the verge of taking the blink test to check whether this is a nasty dream that I desperately want to wake up from, when we run across a Colombian pedaling with his hands. Colombians and Pedaling, I know, don’t let your mind wander. He was pedaling a hand-bike with his hands. He had biked all the way from Colombia to take part in a Hand-Bike Championship in Fairbanks,Alaska where he came up fourth. People and their eccentricities, at least this one kept him fit!
Next, Point Woronzof, the almost mid-point of the trail, the famous make-out spot for those bone-chillin’ makin’-outs Anchorage teenagers are accustomed to, while mammoth 747s graze over their hidden perches. During the five minute break we took there, all I could click was a UPS plane that made a landing at the nearby Anchorage International Airport.
Beyond Point Woronzof the vegetation thickens, moose droppings become more common, bear sighting warning signs make an appearance, almost three fourth the way to our destination, my legs refuse to co-operate – so much for showing off as a fitness freak. We take a half an hour break in a meadow of bracken and wild grass, just as we are contemplating on taking a short nap, one of us spots bear droppings, suddenly legs seem to function better than normal and off we go.
The remaining four miles is peppered with sudden up hills and gradual up hills but uphill all the same. Finally after three hours from the starting point we reach Kincaid Park and heaven comes in the form of vending machines and a fantabulous view from the hilltop!
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108 Responses to “Twenty Mile Travelogue”
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July 28th, 2004 @ 1:19 PM
Boston. I wouldn’t mind doing it for a charity like Asha. Several of my friend did it last year for a local charity. I guess, I just need the extra motivation/push. If you know of something in this area let me know.
… and good luck!
July 28th, 2004 @ 1:19 PM
Boston. I wouldn’t mind doing it for a charity like Asha. Several of my friend did it last year for a local charity. I guess, I just need the extra motivation/push. If you know of something in this area let me know.
… and good luck!
July 28th, 2004 @ 3:14 PM
hey!
Just found this info for you http://www.ashanet.org/mit/ hope you follow it up–coz once you are in–there is no way out!. So far mine has been fun,got to meet some new folks too..let me know what you think!
July 28th, 2004 @ 3:14 PM
hey!
Just found this info for you http://www.ashanet.org/mit/ hope you follow it up–coz once you are in–there is no way out!. So far mine has been fun,got to meet some new folks too..let me know what you think!
July 28th, 2004 @ 3:14 PM
hey!
Just found this info for you http://www.ashanet.org/mit/ hope you follow it up–coz once you are in–there is no way out!. So far mine has been fun,got to meet some new folks too..let me know what you think!
July 29th, 2004 @ 10:23 AM
Thanks, looks like a good source of info. Travelling to India and local prevents me for running any of their October Marathons. They are prolly organizing some in the spring (I am actually a better runner in the Fall, Winter (!) and Spring)
Thanks again.
July 29th, 2004 @ 10:23 AM
Thanks, looks like a good source of info. Travelling to India and local prevents me for running any of their October Marathons. They are prolly organizing some in the spring (I am actually a better runner in the Fall, Winter (!) and Spring)
Thanks again.
July 29th, 2004 @ 10:23 AM
Thanks, looks like a good source of info. Travelling to India and local prevents me for running any of their October Marathons. They are prolly organizing some in the spring (I am actually a better runner in the Fall, Winter (!) and Spring)
Thanks again.