Busted By The Cops

Auke Lake - I love this picture.  Because this place is so quietly, serenely, completely, mystically beautiful.

I left the hotel this morning bundled in a baselayer, fleece, shell jacket, long bike tights, wool socks, running shoes (no clips on the bike), fleece hat, full fingered bike gloves, pack containing water/bike pump/money and wearing my bike helmet.  Only after I was an hour into my ride did I realize that I had left my first aid kit at the hotel.  Oh well.....fingers crossed I wouldn't need it.

With the exception of a few short rides around town (not really fun rides - just testing out the bike) I have not had a chance to take my borrowed two-wheeled transportation very far. 

So today I wanted to go Out The Road - make it to the house that my Mountain Boy and my Jamie-dog and I will be renting, and take some pictures along the way.  Mostly I just wanted to be away from downtown Juneau.

I left fairly early this morning and started riding down Egan Drive (more on that later), stopping regularly and taking pictures along the way.

I stopped briefly at Wal-mart to pick up some much needed items, and to take off a layer as the effort of riding was making me overheat.  And sweating in winter is a big no-no.  If you get sweaty, then pretty quickly you get cold, and with me not really having anyone to call if I got too tired or too cold I figured I had better pay attention to how long I was out, how my energy level was holding up, how cold I was getting etc.

By the time I got close to Auke Bay I was feeling fine, a little chilly but not too bad, and looking forward to having a quiet bike ride the rest of the way to the house.  I dropped my bike for a few minutes to walk closer to the shore to take a few more pictures of Auke Lake.

After taking pictures of the mountains I turned the camera and photographed my surroundings.  I have to say again, how much I love to walk on trails in this area.  With all the loose dark soil in SE Alaska, and the moss and pine needles that completely cover the ground, the terrain is very easy on these old joints - the ones I have beat up and stressed and strained for my entire life since I was a teenager.  It is almost like walking on a carpet.

Continuing past Auke Bay and heading further Out the Road, I eventually pulled into a beach area only a couple of miles from the rental house.  It was a good move I think.  I had been riding and picture taking for a little over 2 hours, I still had to make my way back to Juneau, and I would need enough time to rest, shower and post some pictures before colleagues were picking me up to take me to Eaglecrest Ski Resort on Douglas Island later in the afternoon.  No.....time enough to take a few pictures, call my LC and tell him where I was, eat a Snickers Bar, down some water, put on a warmer pair of gloves and head back.

My borrowed mountain bike.  With the exception of a couple of dicey gear changes every once in a while, a perfectly functioning and greatly appreciated loaner.

What the "Out the Road" road looks like

One of the ferries in dock at the Auke Bay terminal

Heading back to Juneau I had not planned on taking any pictures in Auke Bay close to the harbors, because I had already taken many dozens (if not hundreds) of pictures of that area already.  But when I arrived back in Auke Bay I had to stop and take a few more.  It is just too beautiful an area to breeze by without stopping, appreciating and photographing.

This is the same cove that I walked along a few weeks ago when the tide was out.

By the time I got beyond Auke Bay it was becoming very very windy, biking was becoming a bit of an effort, and I was starting to get cold and tired.

The traffic had increased quite a bit by the time I got to the Valley, and I began to seriously wonder if biking was allowed on this increasingly dicey highway.  The shoulder of the road was very wide, and I had not seen any signs of "no bicycles" but wondered none-the-less. 

Sure enough, by the time I got to the bird-watching mecca of the wetlands area a very nice and polite (not to mention blonde and way-cute) Juneau police officer pulled me over and told me that biking on the Egan was not allowed.  He asked me to veer off the highway and go onto Glacier Highway that WAS bike friendly.

These were a couple of quick pictures I took of the wetlands before I headed over the Glacier Hwy.  I guess if you're gonna get busted by a cop for illegal biking, getting busted by a cute blonde one isn't the worst way to go, eh?