Kenai 250 butt massacre

Kenai 250 is the bikepacking race to do in Alaska. It starts and ends in beautiful town of Hope and hits pretty much every singletrack and trail on Kenai peninsula between Hope and Seward. It consist of about 200 miles of singletrack, 65 miles of paved roads and 30,000 feet of elevation to peddle up. It is brutal.

The conditions this year were relentless, wet, muddy and showers definitely guaranteed being wet entire race. The streams which you had to cross were double in size due to rain over the past couple days and temperature was in mid 50's. All in all conditions were just like we love it up here in Alaska.

I was excited about this race entire year as I really wanted to explore all the trails on Kenai. So far, I only did the Resurrection trail as part of Soggy Bottom race in 2015. Here i could enjoy the Resurrection Trail, Devils creek trail, Johnson Pass, Crown Point Loop, Iditarod trail, Lost Lakes, Russian Lakes. Well at least that was my plan until I sat down (by sat down i mean fell) into one of the creeks on the Devil's creek trail and got sand in my bike shorts, which i did not realized until 6 hours later when i could not sit on my arse.

We left Hope at 9 am on Friday and by 9pm we were on the Iditarod trail heading toward Seward (half point of the race) and I had to bike standing up because of the sand paper like feeling in my pants. When we were pulling into Seward at midnight I not only had a mess of an ass but my legs were cramping due to the biking in standing position for past 3 hours.

So i decided that rather to continue as part of the lead group out of Seward and getting droped off from the group somewhere on the climb to Lost Lakes, I took couple hours of sleep and tried to recover my butt and legs. There is nothing more scary than bike in the middle of the night on overgrown trail in bear country. And i mean there was bear shit everywhere.

Next day at about 6 am I headed lonesome to the Lost Lake Trail, but I was not able to sit on the seat. Bottom line is that i called it in and biked the highway back to Hope, which still was 75 miles away.

I really enjoy the ride despite of the sand and not finishing and I definitely will come back next year.

Two wheeling the Denali highway

This road which is named after the highest peak in North America will actually take you to the close proximity of the Denali. It was built, as you can guess, to get you to the Denali National Park where the Denali is located. 

It is a gravel road which was pretty much retired after Parks highway was built to speed up travels between Anchorage and Fairbanks. These days it serves as a gateway into the wild, well at least in my mind. It stretches about 130miles between villages Paxson and Cantwell. One thing which remained same is the remoteness of the road. There are only three main lodges and couple hunting camps along the way.

It was loooong overdue plan of mine to bikepack the Denali Highway and so it happens that Memorial Day weekend was just the perfect time to do so. I kept advertising my plan for several weeks, but nobody was as excited for this adventure as me so I ended up gravel grinding by myself. And I loved it!!!

After initial what ifs such as what if I get attack by bear, moose, trigger happy hunter or one of the RV’s, I embark on my way with probably about 50 pounds of gear to take care of any remaining “what ifs” which might happen out there. Lucky me, no “what if” occurred! It had perfect weather with only pleasant encounters with wild life or humans.

I was kind of on tight schedule so when I got on my bike I meant business. I did 160miles the first day, which took me all the way to Cantwell and 45 miles back up into the wild where I had a good sleep for 8 hours. Next day I finished up the remaining 70 miles back to my car. If the mileage did not add up to you that is because I started on mile 20 at Tangle Lakes. The first 20 miles on the Paxson side is paved and I did not want to ride that so I drove in. Anyhow, it still ended up being 230miles, 13,000 feet of elevation gain in one and half day with very sore butt as a result.

The nature out there is just amazing, you really feel like you are part of the true wild Alaska which comes with a lot of respect and humbleness. I took several breaks to just sit and watch all the nature around and you can just see how small you are compare to what is around you. It was Epic!

Definitely will come back again!

Stroopwafel, Amstel,Toronto FC, Pilsner Urquell, Hikes, Beer Spa andAuschwitz

Are you wondering how all those things fit together? Well I just could let you thing that it was a well-planned adventure in Europe and Canada, but rather I will introduce you to our illogical set of trips within the trip purely based on our self-proclaimed goals.

It all started with our little doggie and a reoccurring trip to Czech to visit my parents every two years. The doggie did not want to stay in Anchorage all alone for two weeks so we decided what if we could drop her by J’s parents in Toronto on the way to Czech via 12 hours layover in Amsterdam. We actually also decided that on the way home we will stay for two days in Toronto and that is where comes to play the Toronto FC game.  But let me back up here and list the self-proclaimed goals.

Little doggy’s goals: not stay in Anchorage, nothing good comes out of it especially any treats; go explore grandma’s house there are all the time some bits to eat on the ground in kitchen.

J’s goals: Auschwitz, Beer Spa, couple days in Toronto and good times

My Goals: Beer, Beer and more Beer, hiking, stroopwafel and go to see the soccer game in Toronto while at it.

The above wishes became the pivotal story makers of our trip. First stop was in Toronto for just about 4 hours to handle over little barker and get back onto the plane to Amsterdam. We had a 12 hours layover there and we needed to start checking our wishes out so after several pints of Amstel and Heineken the stroopwafel become good idea so couple boxes later we were not only buzzed and sweeter but also on the canal boat in the middle of the city, fun, fun, fun.

The main part of the trip was played out in Czech Republic where we hiked in Krkonose Mountains, Rip Mountain and in rock formations area called “Adrspasske Skaly”. In the midst of all of that we drank lot of Pilsner Urguell and hang out in the beer spa and yes you are in actual hot tub filled with beer.

Auschwitz was a biggie on J’s list so we did a road trip to Poland to see what that is all about. I have to tell you if you ever have an opportunity to visit you need to do that. It is a sobering experience.

And of we went back to Toronto for couple days to see the aforementioned soccer game and back home to Anchorage later on.

Couple more photos from the trip:

Patagonia Nano Air Jacket review

Patagoooniaaaaa! Nano-Air

I bought this jacket as an addition to the biking and hiking gear as it is advertised as a very breathable but warm jacket which does not mind to be sweat through while keeping you warm. It comes with hefty price tag of $299 for the one with hood and $250 without. I actually bought one with the hood on sale for about $210.

I have to say it is well worthy of the money and I just love that jacket. It’s light and soft but that does not mean it’s fragile. I wear it almost every day and I would be even sleeping in it if my girlfriend would let me. 

Nano-Air is very simple, it has two lower front pocket and two chest pockets along with the adjustable flexible string on your waste. The material is very stretchy and feels absolutely comfy all around. It has some water repellent finish but it’s not waterproof. However, from my experience it dries very quickly, which is huge plus. A lot of people are complaining about pocket zippers being hard to zip up by getting caught up on the inner material. It might be true if you are trying to zip it up with one hand in hurry on the bike, but if you just use two hands or pay little more attention to the zipping up than all is fine. One of the only “negatives” per my opinion is that if you want to wear anything heavy in the pockets than it kind of sags the jacket down. I guess that is just compromise due to material being so light. And if you are going to use it in an active manner you will not carry anything heavy in your pocket anyway.

I was little worried about the wind just blowing through this jacket, but it’s not the case. Obviously it’s not as wind proof as a wind jacket but again this is designed to be breathable so you can do your start and stop intense exercises outside while temperature hover below 30 degrees while keeping you dry and warm.