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Wintertime in Alaska is a dreamland for snow-sport enthusiasts.
Locum tenens doctors on assignment in the country's largest and northernmost state will never hurt for weekend or vacation excursion options. Maybe it's a helicopter ride to the top of a mountain to ski and snowboard untouched powder in the Chugach Range. Or perhaps a snowmobile ride to a remote cabin in Big Lake, Fairbanks or Nome to watch mushers and dog teams compete in the grueling Iditarod.
These are amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and only available in The Last Frontier. But locum tenens doctors working in Anchorage hospitals don't have to travel to the far corners of the state for world-class, winter excitement. Anchorage's dedicated biking community has decided that winter can't keep them from their pedaling obsession. And they've developed the tools and the trails to ride all year long.
What's with the big tires?
Winter biking isn't necessarily unheard of. Diehard bikers have been driving sheet metal screws into their tires to make studded wheels for decades. But an innovative Alaskan duo has introduced the biking world to their affectionately named "fat bikes," The next evolution of winter hardware.
Fat bikes are bicycles built specifically to ride in snow and cold temperatures. They have thick but lightweight frames with uncharacteristically wide forks. The forks are specially made to accommodate knobby rubber tires that are comically wide when compared to typical road- or mountain-bike wheels. These broad fat bike tires provide both flotation and traction on snow and ice.
Snow and ice? We've got you covered
Anchorage is bordered on one side by towering, snow-capped mountains and on the other by the picturesque waters of the Cook Inlet. Kincaid Park is an enormous wilderness park with more than 60 kilometers of woodland trails, many of which overlook the coastal plains and surging tides that border the town.
The groomed winter trails are ideal for cross country skiing, and mixed-use trails are used for skijoring, winter running and as pathways for browsing moose. But there is another set of trails that overlap and connect with the main trail system. It is a 16-mile series of professional singletrack mountain biking trails, built and maintained by Anchorage's hardcore, volunteer biking community.
Riding Anchorage singletrack
Throughout the beautiful Alaskan summer and fall, recreational riders and competitive, professional cyclists share the singletrack trails in Kincaid. Several groups organize race series putting white-knuckled riders through tree-studded turns and over roots, logs and man-made terrain features.
Then, when temperatures drop and snow starts to blanket Alaska's largest city, riders put away their skinny tires and the fat bikes come out.
Winter riding is slow and quiet. Snow and the broad, buoyant fat-bike tires combine for a smooth ride over narrow, frozen trails. Cold air lets bundled riders see far out over the inlet to the wind farms on Fire Island and the gentle rise and fall of Mount Susitna, Alaska's "Sleeping Lady." If the conditions are right, you can even see the magnificent Denali looming impossibly large on the horizon far to the north.
Fat bikes are becoming increasingly common. They are still a significant investment to purchase, but some Anchorage shops rent the bikes out. If you're on locum tenens assignment in Alaska and want world-class adventure conveniently located right in town, get yourself on a fat bike and check out the snow covered singletrack trails of Kincaid Park.