What do we do . . .

 . . . when its too wet to paint a deck, but not wet enough to keep you holed up inside all day?  If you guessed a mega-bike ride, you're right.  During breakfast, Bryant suggested a long bike ride starting from the house, going through Palmer, hooking into the Crevesse-Morraine biking/hiking/ski trails and then back home.  When I attempted to talk him into loading the bikes into the truck to start at the bike path in Butte, which would cut off some of the less desirable road riding, I was told I didn't quite understand.  Apparently, the purpose of the long ride was to maximize the time riding and eliminate time in a vehicle.  Seeing as I'm going through a phase for fitness related torture, I easily agreed to his plan and before long were off and riding. 

Fourteen miles later, we reached Palmer and stopped by Backcountry Bikes a relatively new bike shop in Palmer to get directions to the closest trailhead into the Crevesse-Morraine trails and pick up another spare bike tube.  We wiggled through the backroads in Palmer and it wasn't long until we found the dirt trails. 

While we had never entered these trails from that particular trailhead, we have ridden them before, but we just don't ride them often enough, so we get a little confused when the trail splits in three directions.  The sign may say "You are here" but it's not always oriented correctly so invariably we end up on the wrong trail at least once or twice and need to do a few turn-arounds. This happens on most trails we are unfamiliar with and over the years, I don't become too attached to a Point A to Point B destination, as I know we will always get in some side trips.  I've mentally programmed myself into thinking of it as all as exercise.  We rode on a combination of two-rut roads and single track.  Eventually, we worked our way around in a fun circle and back out the original trailhead.

Riding single track through the UAA Agriculture Experimental Farm

On the way home, we couldn't resist McDonald's in Palmer.  After fueling up on grease and ice cream, we headed back home and surprisingly fast. It turned out that our long bike ride was 42 miles with about 12 of them on the trail and then rest on the road.  And lucky for us the real raindrops didn't begin until after we were already home!