How We Thrived in 2025

2025 was another fun year for the Troyer/Leistikow household. 

Corrine retired in March after 35 years of working at the Tanana Valley Clinic as a family physician. She is ready for the next stage of her life although she isn’t sure yet what that will look like. She has enjoyed not having a schedule and has had more time for exercise, quilting, reading, and wasting time on YouTube! And, of course, she has continued to do bikepack adventures and races.

All the quilts Corrine made in 2025 - they are not to scale

Eric has had to adjust to having Corrine around the house an extra 40 hours/week! He continues to be very busy with volunteering. His personal mission statement is to get more people exercising outdoors. He does this by being president of the Fairbanks Cycle Club, and volunteering for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks and Running Club North’s Snowshoe Race series. He also writes monthly trails newsletters and advocates for trails on an as-needed basis. There is never enough time for all that he wants to accomplish. 

Eric leads a cycle club meeting

Both Eric and Corrine continue to challenge themselves physically with skiing, biking, hiking, and running. We bought a 2020 Toyota Tacoma and ordered a pop-up camper/topper that we had installed in Bend, Oregon, while Outside for close to three months this summer. We crossed the country twice – on different routes – exploring new places and camping along the way. 

Our kids are now in other states living their adult lives. We visit them periodically and sometimes they visit us. We are fortunate that they live in areas we love to explore!

Riley and his wife Sam live in Albuquerque, where Riley works at Space Dynamics Lab as a physicist. He spent ten days in August at Summit Station on the Greenland ice sheet setting up equipment for a project. Sam teaches high school science. This year has been challenging since she is teaching AP Physics and had to brush up on all the difficult math that goes along with that. They love backpacking and exploring New Mexico. 

Montana lives in Missoula, working several part time jobs including a new one this summer and fall selling solar panels door to door. She spends her free time songwriting, working out at the gym (where she can do ten pull-ups!), and hanging out with friends. Her musician persona is Aeyre. You should follow her on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Music to hear her music! See her website here. 

Here is a month-by-month synopsis of our year with links to our blog posts if you want more details.

JANUARY

We headed to the Big Island of Hawaii for one last paid-for medical conference and to get some warmth in the winter. We found some new places to explore and met up with other Fairbanks friends who were there at the same time as us. Eric also traveled to Arizona to visit his 92-year-old determinedly independent mom. He helped her with some house chores and talked a bit to her about considering moving to an assisted living place at some point. 

FEBRUARY

Fourth time’s a charm! We finally made it to Hayward, Wisconsin, – along with Riley – for the American Birkebeiner. Prior to the 50-km ski marathon, we raced in the Giant Ski Race (6 people on one large pair of skis) where Team Alaska almost got disqualified for (accidentally) checking the other team into the fence lining the street! The announcer likened us to the Exxon Valdez. It was a lot of fun. (BTW, the other team beat us anyway!) Two days later we all finished the 50K race with respectable-for-us times and loved getting cheered on by all the fans, including hundreds still screaming at the finish. It was quite the event with around 10,000 skiers between all the races.

MARCH

Corrine retired in March and we celebrated with a fat bike trip to Tangle Lakes Lodge on the Denali Highway (a trail in winter) with Erica Betts and Nikki P. Corrine then did a 3-day, mostly solo trip in the White Mountains while Eric stayed home so he could ski race the 25-mile Tanana River Challenge.

Biking the Denali Highway to Tangle Lakes Lodge

Eric has been on a quest to do all the Endurance North Races in every distance and category of human-powered travel. (Except running the longer versions. He’s too slow for that.) He only has to bike 26-mile Chena River to Ridge and the 45-mile Tanana River Challenge. He plans to do both in 2026. Go Eric! It’s a different type of challenge and he is probably the only one to try and accomplish this goofy goal. He also raced the 50-kilometer Sonot Kkaazoot ski race, coming in dead last, but finishing – probably his last 50k ski race.

Corrine finished the month by going on an overnight birthday fatbike to Crowberry Cabin in the White Mountains with Erica Blake and Nikki P. On their bike out, they got to cheer on all the White Mountains 100 racers.

APRIL

Corrine made a quick trip to Colorado to see her friend, Betsy, who died this past summer from glioblastoma (an aggressive brain tumor). While there, Corrine visited with friends Jill and Beat and ordered a new titanium hardtail mountain bike from Corvid Cycles in Boulder. The bike has a Pinion-Gates transmission with a belt drive. Corrine had also brought her gravel bike and did some training around Boulder for a few days. Eric worked on a new discount card program for the cycle club and helped plan a dedication for a new bike path in Fairbanks. 

Dinner with Betsy and her family.  She died in July, 2025 from an aggressive glioblastoma.

Visiting with Jill and Beat

MAY

Biking to Anchorage

Once again Eric spearheaded the Fairbanks Cycle Club bike swap just before we left for several months. Mid-month Corrine biked from Fairbanks to Anchorage over 3.5 days (387 miles) for a couple of specialist doctor appointments. Eric drove the Tacoma to pick her up in Anchorage and then they spent two weeks driving through Canada to Oregon, exploring and visiting friends along the way and getting their new Oru Bruin camper-topper in Bend. Then they headed to Astoria, for the start of the Bike Nonstop US bike race.

Hyder, AK on our way to Astoria

JUNE

Corrine spent June racing the Bike Nonstop, a 3600-mile mixed surface bike race from Astoria to Washington, D.C. She averaged over 120 miles/day. Every. Single. Day. She met her goals of finishing in under 30 days and not being last. She made friends with several other bike racers along the way that were traveling about the same speed. It was challenging, as half of the time she was under a heat dome with temperatures above 100 many days. Eric, meanwhile, drove the Tacoma across the country staying within a couple of days of Corrine, just in case. He somewhat kept up with his volunteer work, but it was challenging for him, too. The race ended at the Lincoln Memorial. Corrine’s good friends, Elisa and Steve, who live nearby, came out and joined Eric to ride the final miles with Corrine. Afterwards we spent several days recovering at their house before heading back west.  Here is the link to the slide show that I did about my race.  (The passcode is .fvzu*7y).

JULY

We spent the month of July working our way back to Bellingham, Washington, where we had a reservation for the Alaska Ferry. Along the way, we explored new-to-us public lands. We hiked, biked, kayaked, and camped in places such as Cuyahoga National Park, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Teddy Roosevelt National Park, and Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park (Canada). We also visited: Corrine’s sister, Cindy, in Akron, Ohio; Eric’s sister, Teresa, and her husband Mark in McCall, Idaho; Montana in Missoula; and friends Linda, and Craig and Mary Kay in Helena. We also spent a couple of days camping with friends, Mike and Annie, in the Elkhorn Mountains in eastern Oregon. It was a great trip, and we saw some amazing places, but we were glad to get home in early August.

Friends and family we saw coming back across the country
From L to R- Cindy, Craig and Mary Kay, Linda, Montana, Mark and Teresa, Mike and Annie

AUGUST

We finished up our trip Outside by taking the Alaska Ferry from Bellingham to Haines, a delightful trip and better than driving the whole Alaska Highway again. From Haines, we were home in just two days. After almost 3 months away, we were happy to spend August getting caught up on life and chores, especially preparing for winter like doing brushing and splitting and stacking firewood.

SEPTEMBER

Even though Corrine was sure she was done with bikepack racing after her long summer race, she signed up for the East Idaho Epic out of Idaho Falls, Idaho. So, to keep in shape she decided to do a two-day 200-mile bike on the Top of the World Highway from just north of Chicken, Alaska, to Dawson City, Yukon, and back. It was a challenging ride with many hills, but the scenery made up for how hard it was. Two weeks later Corrine raced the 430-mile Idaho race but dropped down to the 280-mile distance when the race was slower and more challenging than expected. She ended up riding with Nan P. and enjoyed having a buddy out there for a change. After the race, she again stated she was done with bikepack racing.

Eric was busy with his volunteer work, especially helping shepherd a big project to improve a mountain bike trail system in Fairbanks and doing advocacy for several biking and trails projects. 

Eric tries out one of the new features on the Ester Dome single track

OCTOBER

Eric made a second trip to Arizona to visit his 93-year-old mother. He continued to gently nudge her to consider moving to an assisted living place in the future. This time LuRue was more receptive, admitting that she was finally “feeling her age.” Less than a month after Eric got home, LuRue said she had found an assisted living place that she liked and that she would be moving in around Christmas. Wow, when LuRue makes up her mind, she doesn’t lollygag!

NOVEMBER

Corrine headed back to Colorado to pick up her new bike and met up with Montana for three fun days there. In November we had less snow than usual, so it was difficult to get out on any adventures, but we did manage to do a bike trip to Yeager’s Cabin in the White Mountains with friends Nikki and Mike over Thanksgiving weekend. Mike came by snowmachine, so we had more luxuries than we usually do on cabin trips. It was another fun little get away.

New Corvid Sojourner hardtail mountain bike

DECEMBER

The week after Thanksgiving, the temperature bottomed out and the in-town temperatures hovered between -20F and -45F for most of the month with no end in sight as we write this. It’s been said that it’s the coldest December since 1980. Luckily, we have had a bit of inversion most days, so we have been about 20 degrees warmer on the hillside where we live. 

Riley came to visit for the holidays to get in a lot of skiing (he and Corrine are headed back to the Birkie in February). We managed to get some skiing in, even with the cold temperatures, but there wasn’t a lot of glide. But at least he was on snow! 

Our friends, Jill and Beat, also made their yearly Christmas visit to train for their winter ultra races. At first, they were giddy about the cold temperatures and spent four nights out in the White Mountains Recreation Area with the thermometer not showing much above -40F. They did a second trip, though shortened due to cold and an unbroken, snowed in trail. They are planning a third trip over New Year’s, but even they are getting worn down by the relentless cold. We and Riley– being either less tough or smarter – did not join them on any of these trips!

Photo from Jill's sled on their White Mountain adventure - that's cold!

As the year comes to an end, we have been happy that we are healthy and able to continue to go on adventures both big and small. We have several fun things planned for 2026, but you will have to wait and follow along on our blog to see what those will be! Happy New Year’s to all our friends and family out there!

Minor Mishaps On Our First Cabin Trip of the Season

Post by Corrine

As Eric and I biked along the Wickersham Creek Trail, we kept asking ourselves: Where is Mike? 

We kept thinking he would pass us. We were fatbiking the 15 miles to Yeager’s Cabin in the White Mountains National Recreation Area north of Fairbanks. Mike and Nikki were supposedly about an hour behind us and Mike was on a snowmachine, so he should have been faster than us. Where was he?

Pre-Trip Problems

This overnight trip had been planned by our friend, Erica, and the mishaps started a few days before we were to leave. She reserved the cabin and then invited us and some other friends. Unfortunately, she was bitten by a dog a few days before our trip. It wasn’t a horrible bite. She could still bike. But the bite had caused some deep bruising, and the injury was bothering her enough that she didn’t think a trip to Yeager’s was prudent. 

Then Jordan, another friend Erica had invited, texted that she injured her shoulder when she wiped out skiing. She was bailing, too. It would just be us along with Nikki and Mike. And now they weren’t showing up, either. Would it end up being just Eric and me?

Where is Mike? 

We finally got to the cabin spur trail, about three hours from the trailhead, and no Mike. Nothing to do but continue up. We knew the climb would take a while. The trail is about a mile long and fairly steep, so when it is in good shape it takes a while to climb. But the Whites have had minimal snow, and the spur trail was tussocky. Eric tried riding for about 20 feet before he gave up. We were reduced to pushing our heavily laden bikes.

You can just barely see the cabin at the top of the hill ahead of me

Thirty minutes later we made it to the cabin. But still no Mike. We started a fire and melted snow for water. No Mike. We checked our phones, but no cell service. Eric collected dead trees for firewood. Still no Mike. 

We started sawing up the wood and finally we saw a light coming up the trail just as it was getting dark. I hiked down and, yes, finally, it was Mike! And, yes, they were fine but had been delayed.

Nikki and Mike got to the trailhead only to find they didn’t have the front wheel for Nikki’s bike. It had somehow gotten left at home when they loaded up their truck. They had to drive all the way home, to the Cripple Creek area, and back, so they were about three hours behind schedule. They tried to text us but -- no cell service. We hadn’t been too worried, as they are both very capable, but we had been a little worried and a lot curious. We were just glad they hadn’t decided to bail on the trip, too. Enough little mishaps! 

Then, as Mike unpacked the cooler, he discovered that plastic container that had been holding the eggs had popped it’s top. Nearly half the eggs were sloshing around in the bottom of the cooler. OK, just one more little mishap! 

Nikki arrived about 40 minutes after Mike with their two dogs, Panzer and Pippa, who did fine on the way in. We refrained from giving Nikki too hard of a time about her mistake with the bike wheel! 

Early Season Trails

Early season trips in the Whites can be a crapshoot when it comes to trail conditions. The lower elevation trails, especially, need enough snow to smooth out the tussocks. We knew the trail to Lee’s Cabin, about six miles, was fine – Corrine had skied to it earlier – and we had checked with a few people who had gone farther. It sounded like the Trail Creek Trail to Moose Cabin had a lot of ice on the hills, but reports were that the Wickersham Creek Trail to Yeager’s wasn’t too bad. 

The first six miles - great trail conditions

Once we dropped off the hill called the Wickersham Wall, the snow cover seemed sparser. The trail was still quite good for biking but less so for skiing, although still doable. We noted the new beaver lodge situated right on the trail by Wickersham Creek. It seemed like an odd place to build a lodge, but what do I know, I’m not a beaver. There was a little overflow along the trail but nothing horrible and most of it was frozen.

Good for biking, less good for skiing

The trail is rerouted around the beaver lodge

Overflow wasn't bad

Even with the marginal trail conditions, we still saw lots of people out on the trails. First, we ran into Travis and Sarah with their daughter Etta. They were coming out from Lee’s on their first family cabin trip on bikes, and it was a success! We next ran into a couple of snowmachiners on Wickersham Wall and later met several skiers out for a weekend trip to Yeager’s and Eleazar’s cabins. The skiers told us they had left their skis at the bottom of the spur trail to Yeager’s and just walked the mile to the cabin, the right choice in my opinion.

Travis and Sarah with daughter Etta in the chariot

All in all, conditions were quite good for early season biking, although we still need another six inches to a foot of snow before they get better.

Cabin Meals – Bikepacking vs Snowmachine Styles

Eric and I usually pack for cabin trips like we do for backpacking. Mostly freeze-dried meals, nothing fancy. When you have to haul it on your bike, you want it to be light. So, when Nikki texted us the night before that she would make us eggs and sausage and biscuits for breakfast we were ecstatic. Having snowmachine support is pretty nice! 

Of course, Nikki arrived at the cabin only to find that about half the eggs had spilled out of the container. We gave her a hard time about getting our gastronomic hopes up, only to have them dashed, but it was only light-hearted teasing. We didn’t really care. Just another minor mishap. Nikki and Mike decided that there were enough eggs to still have a decent breakfast along with everything else that Mike towed in on the sled. Some of that everything else was some apple pie moonshine that they shared with us. That definitely made up for the loss of eggs!

While Eric and I rehydrated our freeze-dried meals for dinner, Mike heated up the soup they had brought to eat, but he realized too late that he had forgotten to add the uncooked veggies. Whoops! Just another little mishap. But it actually worked out well for Eric and me, as Nikki decided to cook the vegetables with the eggs for our breakfast the next morning. Yay!

More Little Mishaps

After dinner we chatted and told stories until we were ready for bed. I was looking forward to finishing the book I was reading on the Kindle app on my phone. But to my surprise, the app wouldn’t open. I restarted my phone, but it still didn’t work. No cell service, so I couldn’t try to figure out what was wrong. Luckily, I was tired enough to sleep without reading. Eric told me the next morning that he had the exact same problem with the Kindle app on his phone. We still aren’t sure what the problem is. Eric is researching it. It really wasn’t a big problem, just another minor mishap among many. Mike sagely pointed out that a paperback book wouldn’t have that problem. Ha! Low-tech, low problems. But we are going to try to figure it out, as the Kindle app on our phones has become our go-to reading app for trips.

Checking on the fire in the wood stove

And while it wasn’t really a mishap, we did have to do some learning with the wood stove and cabin. We damped it down early, but the cabin still got too hot, even for me, who tends to run cold. Yeager’s cabin is tight and the wood stove is very efficient. And the temperatures were mild, in the mid-teens. We ended up opening windows and the door to cool off before bedtime. We didn’t restart the stove until early the next morning, and even then it wasn’t that cold inside. Nice to have such a tight cabin. 

Time to Say Goodbye

The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast – with yummy eggs, veggies, sausage, and biscuits! – waiting for the skies to lighten before heading back out on the trail. We saw skiers, snowmachiners, a musher, and even a runner pulling a sled on our way out. The temperatures were pleasant and the riding, although strenuous, was fun. We didn’t stop much and made good time back to our car. Eric was a little behind and at one of his stops a Northern Hawk-Owl flew up and perched atop a tree right next to the trail. Cool!

We all enjoyed the quick overnight. Good weather, good trails, good friends. It was the best kind of weekend. Sure, a few things went wrong, but nothing that really mattered. Eric and I will be back out here with our son Riley and our friends, Jill and Beat, in less than a month. I’m looking forward to another trip. Hopefully this time with a few less mishaps. Or at least no big ones.