Craig and I had quite the 4th of July adventure with friends with a new sport we invented: bike-hiking. Translation: pushing your bike down the hiking trail because the hiking trail was definitely not suitable for biking.
Our plan was to bike the Gull Rock Trail, which is accessible from Hope, AK. With a population of 192, many may not see the “town” while driving along Turnagain Arm, but if you look closely, you may notice a couple of buildings across the inlet.
(This is a shot from the trail, looking across Turnagain Arm towards the Seward Highway.)
There wasn’t too much going on in Hope, but we did see 3 stationary bikes on the roof of a house. Hey, nothing like going to a bike ride with a view of the mountains behind your house.
We started out biking down the trail—or what we thought was the right trail, only to discover it lead us to a campground, so we looped back to the beginning and tried again. This time we found the correct path, but it was very narrow, full of large rocks, exposed tree roots, and not suitable for biking. We could ride for a few feet, but then we would have to get off again and push our bikes over the obstacles.
We must have done this for 30-45 minutes before we found the actual trail we wanted. So we got on our bikes and rode—only to discover this trail was also full of mud, large rocks, roots, small streams, and a very narrow path. By this time, I was pushing my bike more than riding it—as was everyone else—so stashed our bikes in the woods and hiked the rest of the way.
Wait?!? What is snow still doing here in JULY!
Actually, there is still a lot of snow on the mountains after our record-breaking snowfall this winter.
We finally made it to our destination, turned around and headed back. I’m glad the way back always goes faster; I was ready to be done. After bike-hiking for 12 miles, plus running 8 miles that morning, I was beat!
As we were driving back to Anchorage, we saw a bunch of cars pulled off to the side of the road. We knew there must be some sort of wildlife everyone was stopping to look at.
Sure enough. . . .can you spot him??
Zoomed in a little. . . .a nice grizzly bear. (Only “nice” because we were viewing him at a safe distance.)
I was exhausted when we got back home, so I am thankful today was a scheduled day off. I going to relax by baking and watching The Bachelorette this afternoon!
Hope is crawling with bears, I’m surprised you didn’t see any on your trip. Looks beautiful. I hope you realize how jealous I am of your location!! 🙂
I’m *very* thankful we didn’t see any while out hiking; it was constantly on my mind! I hope you realize how jealous I am of your location!!
I, as a joke, had told my Husband we should move to Alaska when he gets out of the Navy but after looking at some of the pictures on your blog I’m retracting the joke out of my statement!
Yes, I would definitely think twice about this!! I did not know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to move here. Some people love it up here though.