With a name like “The Old Rondy Trail” this dark line on the map promised a little adventure. It should also provide a way to avoid the traffic noise I would have to endure using the street alternative. So, at 6:45 on this overcast Anchorage day I steer my beefed up comfort bike onto packed gravel past a “Dog Musher Only Sign.” Knowing those boys won’t arrive until the winter snows I push on. It’s all civilized gravel until I reach a wooden bridge partially covered with tuffs of white hair. I guess it is from a shedding moose but can’t figure out why so much of it ended up on this flat wooden deck way.

Now looking carefully for moose I continue through a boggy, birch dominated forest that offers occasional views of mountains. I have to ignore the possibility of moose when the trail deteriorates into an obstacle course of mud, ruts and exposed tree roots. Being a road bike guy it takes all of my mountain bike skills to make it to the pleasantly paved Campbell Creek Bike path and its easy trail back to the dorm.