NEW BIKE!!!

After about a week of trolling Craigslist, wishing and hoping, I bought a great "pre-owned" bike for $80! My new baby is a black Schwinn Hurricane. I'm probably its third owner because the girl I bought it from says she bought it at a pawn shop. I did some googling and found out this model was made in 1993 and 1994 and sold for about $280 brand new at the time. From my point of view I got a good bike for a good price, so I'm super happy!

As you can see, the bike is black with pink letters on the cross bars. It also has a nice long neck so I can sit back a little bit if I need to give my back a break. Leigh also found a nice bike for herself for an even better price, plus it came with some odds and ends. Hers is an orange Mongoose and it's tall enough for her, which is not an easy bike to find!

Leigh and I took a nice ride around Anchorage on Saturday to test out our new bikes and the route I plan to take to work. We rode down Lake Otis Parkway, across town on Chester Creek Trail, then North on Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. We went all the way to my office and then some before turning back toward home. By the end of the day we'd ridden about 17 miles and I calculated a one-way trip from our apartment to my office will take me between 35 and 45 minutes, varying depending on traffic, etc.

I am a bit concerned about wildlife encounters on the trails, especially in the mornings before a lot of people are out. So tonight we went to Wally World (don't judge me!) and I bought a bear bell for my handlebars and a canister of bear spray that I'm keeping in my water bottle holder. Hopefully the bear bell will keep the bears away so I'll never have to use the spray because, honestly, I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't just freeze up and let the thing eat me!

Now, on the other hand, during the winter months I'll only have to worry about moose encounters. The worrying part is that I have no idea how to deter moose encounters or what to do if faced with one. As far as I know all you can do is back away from the animal slowly and hope it doesn't decide to trample you just for the fun of it. I'll do some more research on this... or maybe look online for a biking buddy to keep me company in the mornings....

Anyway, tomorrow is my first day biking to work and I'm super excited. I've always wanted to be able to get to work either on foot or bicycle, so hopefully I'll enjoy it and the habit will stick!