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| O'Malley from the ridge |
After Bold I have been on the the
quest to add more elements to my adventures. I spend a good chunk of my day
thinking about what I awesome trips I could potentially conquer. Thursday I was
on a long bike ride from the Hillside area back to my home near downtown, and I
thought of the best idea Ive had in a long time!
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| View down the ridge from False Peak |
I'm car less, most of my friends were out of town for the weekend, and I can't set
still for long. BUT I had to do something with my weekend! Luckily for me
my roommate Hannah is usually on board for most of my ridiculous ideas.
The plan that I devised was to hop the tourist shuttle with mountain bikes that
leaves out of downtown and takes folks up to the Glen Alps Trail-head. At Glen
Alps Trail-head we were going to bike to the Middle Fork Trail, ditch the bikes
and then head up the O'Malley Gully to summit O'Malley Peak; a big ol' peak
near the Front Range. THEN the BEST PART!!! After summiting and descending we
were going to head back down to our bikes and follow the Powerline Pass Trail
to the Gasline Trail and ALL the way back down to our home in downtown
Anchorage.
Saturday morning we headed downtown to meet the shuttle at 12:30 pm. On the way downtown the crankshaft on the bike Hannah was borrowing from her brother started to come loose. We got to the shop and the helpful shuttle guide Pete had a tool he lets us borrow. Thank goodness! With a group of eager tourist we began our journey to Glen Alps. Arriving around 1:45 pm we started our adventure at 2:00pm. Now in a perfect world I would have started early in the morning at least by 8 am, but for a $15 dollar ride i wasn't going to be too picky! With the late start we weren't sure if we were going to have time to summit O'Malley. We headed up the gully any ways and began the ridge walk. I always think that O'Malley looks closer than it is. On the O'Malley Ridge, False Peak is the first biggish peak you come to. It's about a 40 min walk on the ridge. Summiting False around 4:00 pm we decided that we needed to head back down to make it home before dark. This was the second time in a month I attempted O'Malley and needed to turn around because of time! The first time was with my friends Scott Fritz and Sarra. BOO! Oh well, it will just take a third time and an earlier start. False Peak is still really fun.
We headed back to our bikes
and that's were the real fun started! Back at our bikes we began the DESCENT!
15 miles down hill, most on trails. We started off on the Powerline trail to
the Gasline Trail to Prospect Trailhead. It was muddy and rocky and turns to a
single track! SO GREAT. Now Ive had a good time or two on a mountain bike BUT
this by far was the most fun Ive ever had. 3 miles in were so covered in mud
we could hardly see. We quickly descended steeply into the Hilltop Ski Area and
continued to the Service High Trails down to the Homestead Trail and to the
Campbell Tract BLM Land. From there we had to ride a little on some roads to
pick up the Chester Creek Commuting Trail that leads almost to our back door.
By 8 pm we were standing in our kitchen covered in mud with HUGE smiles on our
face.
