I always wanted a Flattop.

Ok, mooses have lost their novelty. Shortly into my run this evening I encountered my second moose with two moosets. The whale on toothpick legs was standing right on the trail chewing away. I waited for a while, thinking it might move off the trail, but no, the ugly POS had no intention of moving and I wasn't really feeling like a kick in the face today. Luckally a dog came to my run's rescue. For a while I thought I might see the dog get drop kicked (minus the "drop") by the moose as the two exchanged charges. But the moose with calves in tow were slowly pushed off the trail enough for me to sneak by with only a minor fear this might be my last run. Needless to say, I avoided the narrow trails the rest of the run.

Moving on, the highlight of the day was a casual ride down from Flattop Mountain. There is nothing like continous coasting for 6+ miles. The only problem is that the ride first included riding up the mountain. Who am I kidding, I loved the pain! The mountain is only about 2,250ft high, but when you are starting at around 150ft, that equates to a pretty good ride. Of course when I decided on doing the ride, I just saw it was ~12miles each way and thought, "No big deal." Lesson learned: I'm not in Ohio anymore, look at elevation change also. The great thing is that from Flattop I can access a lot of long trails that are only moderate bear danger. So, the plan is to do this ride as often as possible and make my quads so big that they no longer fit in my pants. It could happen, no really it could. (The picture of that handsome man is from the top of the ride with Anchorage in the background, not the nicest weather today.What the pictures don't show is that the wind gusts were so strong they would almost blow me over!)

This is where I plan my next adventure to be (the backside of Flattop)!!