After our first night of camping, Dr. Jackson cooked us a traditional Alaskan frontier breakfast of Spam, eggs, cheese, on English muffins, aka Jackson McMuffins. Not being one to subject my body to abominably unhealthy food like Spam (it’s 28.5% fat and high in sodium), I adopted the “When in Rome…” ethos and ate three Jackson McMuffins, plus a raw sliver of Spam just to give myself an extra punch in the gut. Ben repeatedly described the Spam as “delightful,” and shortly thereafter Whitney complained of heartburn. I’m sure I filled my body with close to 1500 calories from that breakfast, but I would need the energy. The plan for the day was to rent bikes and ride the Eklutna Lakeside trail, which runs along the lake up to the Eklutna glacier.

Eklutna Lakeside Trail trailhead.

The attendant at the bike rental shack claimed the bike trail was 14 miles long, followed by a hiking trail up to the glacier. I estimated that by adopting a leisurely pace of 10 mph, we could reach the end of the bike trail in an hour and a half. Nobody knew how long the hiking trail was after that, but I hoped we’d at least be able to view the glacier from the bike trail.

Dr. Jackson (in red) meeting the attendant at the bike rental shack.

Depending on the vagaries of the terrain, the trail split into a relatively flat bikes-only section that ran near the lake, and a parallel ATV (all-terrain vehicle) path that climbed up the mountain and then descended to rejoin with the bike path. On the way up to the glacier, we faithfully kept to the bike trail. This path offered more scenic views of the lake and mountains, but frequently had large sections that had collapsed from erosion.

Ben taking in the majestic views of Lake Eklutna.

The weather was sunny and warm, making it a beautiful day in Alaska for a bike ride.

Jenna leading the pack on the Eklutna Lakeside Trail.

Segments of trail were fully missing such that we had to carry or walk our bikes until the path reappeared. The first one I took rather fast and clipped my left arm on an array of small trees, losing a nontrivial amount of skin. But mostly these tight sections required only slow and careful riding, and perhaps a prayer that the land wouldn’t sink beneath us.

Whitney and a moderately eroded section of trail.

Around the six mile marker we passed the lake and found ourselves coursing through several acres of forest recently marred by wildfire. We were surrounded by dry yellow brush and a scatter of scorched-black tree trunks. The air was filled with an arid, breathless silence highlighting an absence of wildlife. Such landscape will make one’s throat dry, and the group stopped for a water break. I started grumbling with the suspicion that this was the work of some negligent campers, but Jenna, our resident botanist/chemist, explained that wildfires were a natural part of a forest’s lifecycle, which made me feel better. Natural wildfires are A-okay in my book.

Jenna and the wildfire area along Eklutna trail.

Shortly after the eleven mile mark we crossed a small, gently flowing river which carried the main glacier runoff that fed the lake. Our pace was about 4.5 miles per hour by this point, and some of us were having trouble with our bikes shifting properly. We decided to break for lunch on a sandbar in the middle of the river.

The sandbar that became our picnic spot. We sat on that fallen tree trunk to the left.

By this point I had run out of water (the Spam sodium had hogged my water supply), and Dr. Jackson advised that I not drink the river water due to the risk of contracting giardia, which is a bacterial infection producing violent digestive problems.

After lunch, the trees and river (or perhaps his food) struck Ben with the impulse to meditate. The others found themselves some rocks to sit on and politely waited for him to finish. I just stared at all this cool, fresh glacier water rushing by me. “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” goes the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It was a only a few hours back to camp, so I wasn’t worried about shriveling up into a raisin.

Our picnic area looking down river at the bridge along the trail.

But I came close. On the return trip, we accidentally took one of the ATV trails, which was drastically more difficult. It was rockier and had larger elevation changes, which substantially slowed down the group. And to our dismay, it was over a mile long! Future bike riders, heed this warning: Do not ride the ATV trail!

The trail splitting into the bike trail to the left and ATV trail to the right.

Finally, we made it back to the bike shack, and I drank one of the most delicious gatorades of my life.