Fat Tire Bike Event in Homer

After a couple days in Anchorage for a conference with howling winds I was looking forward to a beachwalk in Homer. A friend called me up and she took me to a "secret" beach access point I'd heard about but never checked out before.  A short walk over a frozen boggy area got us to the top of the bluff where we were amazed to be greeted by the sight of dozens and dozens of fat tire bikers streaming by, the line stretching off in both directions. What the heck?

Yep, those are bikers down there!

We clambered down the bluff and immediately came across a man we knew who filled us in. Apparently it was the annual Fat Bike Festival in Homer. Each year they have a different ride or events, and this year's was to start at Miller's Landing off of Kachemak Drive and ride to McNeil Canyon where they would have food and a fire and then bike back, a ride of about 8 miles each way. Apparently the first couple miles were really rough. Where we'd come down it was ice alternating with slush and not ideal walking by any means. It didn't look ideal for the bikers either. They didn't particularly look like they were having fun, and not long after we got down to the beach it started snowing so pretty soon there was no beautiful view that you see in these pictures and was just gray snow coming down.

There was a stream crossing right where we came down the bluff and some folks were nervous about that. A number of bikers congregated but eventually they all crossed.

By time we started heading back some of the bikers had turned around and headed back too, opting to have the wind (and snow!) on their backs and get home. As one man told us, you can't choose pain but you can choose whether you suffer!

Congregating by a stream crossing

A dog with a camera mounted on his back!