As I was near the end of my third mile today, near Lake Otis and Chester Creek, probably the corridor used by the bear hit on Gambell yesterday morning, (Wow, as I searched for the link to that article, I found out that everybody is carrying that story. It was an AP story even in the Anchorage Daily News), I saw a couple with bikes, stopped and looking at a map.
Well, they wanted to do the Loop - Chester Creek to Campbell Creek to Coastal Trail back to downtown. It's a great ride, but there are these gaping holes in it as well as unmarked turns. The visitor trying to patch together these three great trails really faces a challenge. They even said they tried it from the other way, but eventually gave up.
And I feel bad. I tried to explain to them how to
1) make sure they turned right so they could cross the Northern Lights bridge,
2) then turn the right way to get around Goose Lake, (the sign is all backward)
3) past the construction at UAA
and find the 4) connection after the Tudor Bridge, then 5) find the Campbell trail from there, and 6) refind it after it stops at Lake Otis, then
7) get under the Seward Highway (which I have posted here),
then 8) turn the right way on the dirt trail to get to Arctic Road Runner where they'd be home free.
Except, after they left, I realized that, of course, they weren't home free, because that trail doesn't have an obvious connection to the Coastal Trail and they would be lost at the same break they were lost at coming the other way.
Maybe someone will tell them how to get to Kincaid from there. They have till 9 tonight to catch their plane. Sorry, I left out the end. But by Arctic Road Runner I already figured they'd have to be pretty smart and pretty lucky just to get there.
We need:
1. A bike trail map that gets people through the gaps
2. Signs on the trail to help people do the Loop
3. To have the gaps filled in
It's a great ride, but finding it is a much bigger challenge than riding it.
I'll try to post some instructions with pictures when we get back from our trip.
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