Post by Eric
Sometimes big, stupid adventures come in small packages.
On a recent Tuesday night, I took my bike on a trip that took only 2 hours and 40 minutes and was only a little over 5 miles long. I say “took a trip” because I rode only about 4 miles of that. For that other mile or so, I was on the bike for about 5 minutes. The rest of the time I was taking my bike for a walk. More accurately, I was taking my bike for a shove. A shove through bushes and branches and over trees.
Canceled Ride Offers a Chance for Reroute Investigation
I lead a weekly summer ride for the Fairbanks Cycle Club called the Tuesday Night Mountain Bike Ride. I’ve been doing the rides since the 1990s and have been co-leading since 2007. On this particular Tuesday night, no one showed. I wasn’t surprised. It was rainy and chilly and windy. Since it was just me, I decided that instead of doing the planned ride, I would investigate a possible reroute for it.
The Moose Mountain Motoring ride has been on our schedule for years. It is a loop that takes us up Moose Mountain, along a power line trail, across part of Old Murphy Dome Road (OMDR), and then back to the start via a couple of rough trails. One of those trails is called the Rabbit Trail – not officially, it’s just the name people have given it. I first heard the name from Rocky Reifenstuhl. For several years, Rocky, who died in 2014, organized a race that used the Rabbit Trail. Later, it was used by the Sluice Box 100 multi-sport race. And we used it on our Tuesday Night MTB Ride.
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| Dave and Mark on the Rabbit Trail during a TNR when the trail was still good back in 2021. |
However, the Sluice Box 100 was run only 3 times, the last being in 2014. Since then, hardly anyone besides us was using the Rabbit Trail. It was only ever a glorified game trail – more useful to moose than people. Without regular use and maintenance, the trail started getting brushy and trees started falling across it. Several years ago, a few of us took chainsaws out and cleaned it up, but it was a lot of work. Then we had a few storms that took down more trees in the area. Last year, only two of us showed up for the Moose Mountain ride – Dean and me. We had a hard time even finding the entrance to the Rabbit Trail from OMDR. We finally found it and ran into three places where trees had fallen across the trail right near the beginning. We bailed. We rode out to the road system, taking Spinach Creek and Moose Mountain roads back to the start.
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| Can you see Dean? Can you see the trail? |
Since then, I wondered what would happen to this ride – one of our favorites. The Rabbit Trail was an important part of the ride – we loved it and hated it in equal measures – but the ride has a lot of other great parts. We like loops and without the Rabbit Trail I didn’t know if we could make a loop without the last part being all on roads – a horrible fate for mountain bikers.
I had one hope. At its bottom end the Rabbit Trail comes out onto a power line cut. (A different power line from the one we do earlier in the ride.) From there our ride hooked up to a trail going downhill that weaves on and off the power line cut. And the power line goes up to OMDR. But the trail didn’t seem to connect from the Rabbit Trail up to Old Murphy Dome Road. Snowmachiners and mushers often put a trail on the power line in winter, but no one seems to use it in summer. Probably because at the lower end a creek runs across the power line cut and creates a swamp. There isn’t any way around it. (Something else we love and hate about this ride!)
Still, I kept looking at satellite images. Was there a faint trail there? Could we use the power line cut as a reroute? With no one else on the ride, I was free to try!
Checking Out a Possible Power Line Reroute
When no one showed, I drove to the intersection of McCall and Old Murphy Dome Road, where the trail-ish section of OMDR starts. I rode down to the power line.
ATVers have created a little loop where the power line meets OMDR, but no trail goes down the power line cut. However, as I looked out on the sea of grass that covered the power line cut, I could see that someone had headed down through the grass. It was just a single line, clearly not an ATV. But all I needed was a single line. I started riding down.
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| The start of my power line reroute exploration |
Well, I can report that the power line is a great reroute. There really isn't much of a trail. There are bits of trail here and there. I mostly followed that track in the grass left by someone else. But it was easy to ride. The base is mostly even. No big surprise divots. I only had to walk my bike through one short area. (Which I'm happy to say is a bit swampy!) Otherwise, it was mostly fine all the way down to where the Rabbit Trail comes out onto the power line. The exit of the Rabbit Trail was barely there, but that’s always been the case.
I turned around and started to head back up the power line cut when I had a thought: Is the whole Rabbit Trail in bad shape or just the part at the top? How would I know unless I tried!
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| The lower entrance to the Rabbit Trail |
The Rabbit Trail Adventure
I turned around and started up the Rabbit Trail. The lower part is through a black spruce forest. I should have turned around after about the fifth area of downed black spruce trees. (Sometimes there was one across the trail, sometimes there were three or four crisscrossing each other.) But I started to think: "Maybe, it's just the black spruce section.” Sadly, no one was there to talk me out of this flawed thinking.
The black spruce section was a battle. I shoved my way through some blockages. Sometimes I crawled under them and shoved or dragged my bike through. Other times the blockages were so bad I just had to bushwhack around them – not an easy thing to do in a black spruce forest.
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| Under this one |
I occasionally thought about turning around, but then I would hit a short section of unblocked trail. “Finally!” I would think. Then I would hit another blockage. But those short moments of clear trail kept fueling my optimism, so I continued.
Then I got to the turn where the trail leaves the black spruce section into more open forest. My spirits lifted! Surely, things will be better!
I turned the corner and saw the trees. A couple of big white spruce trees across the trail. Surely, dear reader, you are thinking that I turned around then. Oh, if only you had been whispering in my ear. I went over and around those two trees and the three or four more after that.
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| After I turned the corner |
But then I finally got to some open trail! Well, open-ish. Trees still occasionally blocked the trail, and brush had closed in on some areas, but I was making better time. Not riding but pushing faster. At this point I knew the Rabbit Trail was a lost cause, but I wasn’t going back through the black spruce. Compared to that, I had a relatively clear path in front of me.
Then I started to temporarily lose the trail. With no one using it, the grass has started to grow, concealing the narrow path. I kept losing it and then re-finding it. But I knew I was getting close to the end. I might have to re-find the trail a few times, but I could do that! My optimism fueled me.
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| Easy going! |
One Last Cruel Kick – Or Two
Then I couldn't re-find the trail. I looked and looked but couldn't find anything that resembled any kind of path through the woods. I left my bike and searched in a big circle. Nothing.
Still, I knew I was within a quarter mile of OMDR. I wasn't worried about being lost. I knew I just had to keep going uphill. Of course, uphill led right into a black spruce forest. Fortunately, this black spruce forest wasn’t nearly as thick as the lower one. Unfortunately, this black spruce forest had a lot of downed trees. A lot!
I slowly battled my way forward, trying to find an open path, but I could go only a short way before another downed tree (or several) blocked my path. Each time I got to a blockage, I lifted my bike up and then shoved it as far as it could go. Then I scrambled after it. I did this over and over and over. I said a word a lot that I won't repeat here. It kind of helped.
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| The second black spruce forest |
Then I saw a break in the trees up ahead. I knew it had to be OMDR! It was still a hundred yards or so away, through all those downed trees, but just seeing it gave me energy. I pushed and shoved and cursed my way until I got to the alders that lined the road.
Normally, I would hate to bushwhack through a line of alders, but I knew what was on the other side. These alders were my friends! They were harbingers of a clear path! Of course, being alders, they were twisted, cruel, evil friends, but still friends! I shoved (and fell) my way through the alders, and suddenly I was out on OMDR. Hooray!
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| Shoving through the alders |
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| $%#@ alders! |
Finally Out!
As I biked back toward my truck, I passed the Rabbit Trail entrance after less than 100 feet of biking. So close! I briefly thought about heading down it to see where I had lost my way, but apparently even I am not that stupid.
But I did it! I verified that the power line is a good reroute! And that the Rabbit Trail is definitely not a route any person should take. At least not a person with any lick of sense.
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| At the bottom of the power line reroute. Look at that smile! It's a piece of cake! |
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