Visiting mountain bikers first taste of Girdwood trails – very good

By Jonathan Rudd
Special to the Turnagain Times

My Buddy Levi and I rolled up to the town of Girdwood about a month ago to check it out and see a friend. Our first impression of town seemed like it was a tight nit community of friendly people eager to help us out with finding a good time and place to camp.

We were eager to get on some trails biking or hiking what ever the weather permitted, after all, we’re in a rainforest. So what we decided was to hike when it was raining and bike when it was dry so we didn’t tear up the trails too much because that’s just good etiquette.

So far in town, we have biked the Beaver Pond trail, Winner Creek, and Blue Berry Pancake and many of the paved and dirt trails through and around town. We have also hiked up Crow Creek, the Iditarod trail and up to the tram of Alyeska, and we can’t wait for Alyeska to start turning their lifts for some DH (down hill) Mountain biking.

Our first ride was the Beaver Pond trail, and it was a hoot. Trying to get our bikes over roots that were ridiculous made this trail apparently more suited for hiking, but there we were hike-biking. If you can keep your feet off the ground, you’ll get a lot of good practice maintaining your balance, which never hurts to be better with.

One thing that caught our eye was a tipped over tree with a nest of roots the size of a large truck witch made us wonder what the possibility was of getting nailed by one of these many huge trees. Probably pretty good. The beaver pond is a nice peaceful place to stop and have a snack and the trail smoothes out from there making it an enjoyable finish to a fun trail.

Anxious to bike a trail that would be more suitable for the bikes we brought we asked around and got sent to Alyeska and found a trail called Blue Berry Pancake, which this early in the season was all that was not covered in snow. This is short and sweet, but a nice teaser trail for what’s to come when the resort starts selling tickets.

The Winner Creek Trail so far has been the most enjoyable trail. This trail flows up and down the whole way through and the dirt feels like you have all the traction in the world. one of the coolest parts is hooking your bike to the hand tram and crossing over the river.

It’s awesome to see people working together pulling the rope to aid in getting across the gorge. I didn’t even have to touch the rope to get across. Keeping in mind that those same people that helped me cross are typically hikers so you need to be aware of traffic on the trail. Hikers have the right away and the first half-mile or so you’re supposed to walk your bike.

The hikes we have done have been beautiful as is the town of Girdwood. If the adventures and the people continue to be as great as they have been this will be one of our most memorable summers yet.