Road trip

Damn. I hate it when a perfectly good photographic opportunity is ruined by the absence of a bicycle. I mean, seriously, wouldn't this shot have made a great banner for the blog if only it had a fat bike rolling through the foreground?

Oh, well. I guess Denali is lookin' pretty good in the late evening sun anyway.

My wife and I needed a change of scenery this weekend, so we loaded up our daughter and some gear, and headed for Talkeetna. What is there to do in Talkeetna in April? Damn little, unless you're a mountain guide gearing up for the clients that will arrive soon. For us, that was the point: nothing to do. We walked around the mostly empty streets, ate some food, bought some used books, slept in a quiet cabin and looked at the scenery.

During one of our walks, we followed a snowmachine trail for a little while. That reminded me of how being a winter biker does strange things to a person. For one, it makes you constantly assess the surface of any snow you happen to be walking on, because you're always curious about how well it would support a bike.

My wife understands this. Or she tries to, anyway. As we were walking along a wide, hard-packed area that was a virtual snowmachine highway leading out of town, she said, "You should bring your Pugsley up here."

Damn straight.

Talkeetna is already on my list of spring weekend trips over the next couple of years. All I need is a big breakfast at The Roadhouse, and a sunny day to ride through the country with a view of the mountain.