This was the Fairbanks Snow Travelers annual Sweetheart Run from Fairbanks to the Monderosa Restaurant in Nenana. The Monderosa is known for their Mondo Burgers and always worth the ride down for lunch.

I wasn’t sure if the temps were going to accommodate us for this ride. When I left the house in North Pole it was -15 below, on the way to town my truck showed -20 below, when I got to Chena Pump Landing where we were to meet, at 9:00 AM it was -14 below. 12 others showed up for the ride, so off we went.

We meet at Chatanika Lodge for breakfast, 15 folks showed but only 10 brought along their sleds to ride. The temps at the lodge was -26 below when we arrived, so we decided to head up to Cleary Summit, where the temps were a balmy -2 below.

Chuck did a great job as our ride leader and took us on two separate rides. On the first run we crossed the Steese and Elliott Hwy’s to Murphy Dome road and then rode along the pipeline towards Fox and then south to the Goldstream Valley. Kerry, riding a new Skandix took a little side trip into the trees when he hit a dip that turned out to be a double dip a bit deeper then he thought, a couple good pictures of his “Tree Hugging” adventures and us getting him out included below.

Cordova is my favorite coastal town.

Snow and Merry Christmas
So I decided to lead another club ride, this time to Angle Creek Lodge, up the winter trail from 27 mile Chena Hot Springs Road (CHSR). The temps were questionable, at least the forecast was calling for -20 below temps. We got lucky, the temps at the trail head where we started was 3 above at 10:00 AM when we left and stayed in the above zero range all day.

Had a great ride Saturday with some of the Snow Travelers members and a couple of some “soon” to be members. We headed into the White Mountains with the plan to make it to Richards cabin, one of the remote cabins the BLM maintains for recreational use. We did make it and the ride was great for December, fresh snow on the ground and almost no other tracks on the trail. We started out with a head count of 5, lost 1 about 3 miles in do to engine trouble. Ended with 4 of us at the cabin and then picked up another member on the way out, so we were 5/4/5 on riders for the day.

First real local ride of the season for me. This wasn’t a planned club ride, but it turned out to be a good one. 10 of us meet at the large pull out on Nordale road and headed towards Pleasant Valley at 22 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road.