It was Fran's big day as she was flying to an Island to observe and photograph bears with a group of about 10. The meet time was 8am and so I dropped her off and had decided to go for a bike ride. I scouted out a bike shop that I thought might have a road bike, but it didn't open until 10am, so in the meantime, I decided to see if I check out another bird watching venue. The first time down East End road, I missed the trail, but I decided to drive to the end of the road. It is a road that literally runs along the Bay and then comes to a halt when it hits the beach.
The road was about 20 miles long, so there and back would be 40 and multiply that by 1.6 is 64 kms - a decent ride considering there wasn't a flat spot on it.
I found the trail to the bird viewing deck on the way back and decided to take a gander. It was not well maintained or used in that I had to walk through long wet grass to get there and by the time I did, my feet and shorts were soaked. I loitered long enough to determine that there were few birds to be seen and that by the time I returned, the bike shop would be opening up. "do you have a road bike I could rent." "no." "Do you have any bikes with clip-in pedals?" "no, we don't have anything like that". "right then". So I returned to the bike rental place close to where we are staying and rented a Trek hybrid. Don't let the Trek bit fool you, this was a garden variety commute to work hybrid. Then I set off back for East End road to do some hills.
I had not realized that there was one super long hill on the way out. It took me 17 minutes to summit. On my road bike, it probably would have been at least 3-4 minutes less. The scenery on the ride was spectacular as I was basically riding along a ledge looking across the Bay at the mountains and glaciers (when I wasn't avoiding cracks in the road). I have to admit that by the return leg I had started to seriously dislike this hybrid, even though it was functioning as intended, it was a heavy hog that was uncomfortable to ride. After almost 3 hours in my possession, the bike was happily returned.
It was almost time to pick up Fran. Hopefully she had resisted the temptation to poke the bear. I grabbed a coffee and a blueberry cheesecake roll and went to the designated pick up spot. All was quiet and so I waited. An hour later, the plane showed up, but it had been a successful trip. I have stolen one photo for Facebook.
After a bit of a rest, we decided to go to the Thai restaurant for dinner. We enjoyed fantastic yellow curries in traditional Thai style.
Upon returning to our room, we put on our hiking boots and headed out for a stroll along the beach. It is always interesting to see stuff on the beach. It was not a sandy area that people would normally inhabit, yet Fran found a quarter. I also found a rock that was a unique shiny amber colour, after it dried out, its colour changed to something less interesting and I threw it in the sea. There was quite a lot of erosion on the cliffs and we could see trees hanging on for dear life. There was no wildlife of any interest and we returned up the steep hill back to our Motel.
For three nights I have been looking forward to a Hop Dog IPA (made in Alaska). It's super hoppy. If you know anything about hops and bitterness, this one is 100ibus. That's a lot. Not sure how it compares to a Yippee Ale, but it is a mighty fine beer. Another full day. Tomorrow - Seldovia
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