January 1-7

January 1, 2024 to January 7, 2024

Week 1 of a new year. The week saw a high temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit with steady lows in the -10 zone. At one time, many years ago I might have tried an outside ride but those days are gone now. Not that I don’t think about it, but it is simply easier and much warmer to go to the “bike studio” and ride the indoor trike. We are also dealing with only 4 hours of sunlight, when we don’t have cloud cover, so I will simply dream forward to February when we box the new trikes and head for a month of cycling in the desert southwest where we will base out of Tucson and enjoy some sun and shorts.

As the “bike studio” is a clean indoor environment, no real maintenance needs to occur except for a once a month chain cleaning and lube. No dirt and grime by any means and those parts will be replaced when spring hits so we are simply trying to wear them out now.

The “bike studio” … where we spent several hours per day.

I also took a bit of time this week to construct our travel boxes for the new trikes. The goal was a box smaller than before and I was able to source some 30x30x25 boxes from Amazon. At that point I realized I only needed a box 30x30x20 so I used a box resizer tool, also from Amazon, to size down the height and now have a box that is smaller than before and a more custom fit. Other than the resizing, I always reinforce the handholds with an extra layer and some hot glue.

The folded ICE Trike is waiting to be packed. Resizer tool is in the bottom right corner.

Handle reinforcements are a “must” for the airlines.

There also seems to be a new “hobby” showing up in many journals involving birds. There aren’t many birders in Alaska in the middle of winter although we do attract both Black Capped Chickadees and Boreal Chickadees to the feeder which we can almost see from our trikes. Also saw one Common Raven fly past today. As the week progressed we also had some Common Redpolls come in for some food as well.

Unfortunately photography is quite limited in the dark winter months and it doesn’t help that these birds are a very flighty as they forage for a quick winter snack.

Today's ride: 221 miles (356 km)
Total: 221 miles (356 km)

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Scott AndersonYes, that’s a problem with birds alright. They’re definitely flighty. Trees are actually a much easier study.

Aren’t ravens a successful species though? That’s quite a winter range - we have them down here now too. No redpolls or boreal chickadees though, of course.
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4 months ago

Larry MitchellTo Scott AndersonRavens thrive up here. Have seen them down on the coast and as far north as Atigun Pass on the Dalton Highway. In fact the only place I haven’t seen them was when I spent time at Shemya out on the Aleutians.
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4 months ago