Draft for new Permanent

[Bear Bait]

I am thinking about building a permanant 200K that starts at Carr's
Huffman, goes to the Tesoro at Girdwood, then out to Eklutna and
back. Does anyone have any other ideas for permanents?

[Buzz Scher]

Great route. I don't know how the distances would work, but how about Girdwood to Hope to Summit Lake Lodge to Girdwood.

Merry Christmas - Buzz

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[Bear Bait]

That sounds like a good one also. The route card would be easier. I
was thinking of one that you would not have to drive from Anchorage to
start. We can build more than one premanent.

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[Buzz Scher]

Bear Bait?

I agree, but seeing as the first 25 miles of the Seward Highway (south of Potter), and the first 10 miles of the Glenn (north of Muldoon) are NOISY and BORING!!, I would gladly drive 30-60 minutes just in order to take advantage of better riding roads - same goes to starting a permanent in Palmer.

[Kevin Turinsky]

This is great. I'm glad you're R-12 is encouraging you to take the
next step with designing permanents! We could easily have 30 to 50
permanents up here. We already have 19 brevet routes. I have another
20+ route ideas in my head. I even have preliminary courses
established for two permanents on Kodiak, and one out of Cordova!

Tools I use to create courses are Mapmyride.com and National
Geographic's TOPO! Alaska CD-ROM mapping software. TOPO! is $99 at
REI. It's really great for hiking trips too!

For quick approximations, I'll use Google Maps because it allows you
to enter specific destinations. That lets you to see if your idea for
a course is in the ballpark of the required distance. For instance, if
I wanted to quickly see the approx distance between Palmer and
Talkeetna, or Anchorage and Hope, I'd just plug those in. The actual
course would vary quite a bit, as I'd use 2ndary roads and bike paths.

Mapmyride can be frustrating, but it's the best thing going for
accuracy when building cumulative distances for cue sheets. It also
allows you to look at a course to see at what fraction of a kilometer
to make a turn; critical for cue-sheet construction.

Veronica, it sounds like your course is a modified figure-8, as it
leaves from South Anchorage, but then goes back through South
Anchorage on its way to Eklutna. Sometimes figure-8 courses work,
other times they encourage a rider to quit early. That said, I used
one for the Kenai 200K. And Bob Voris's original 200K that started and
finished at Highland, is a figure-8. (I sent that cue sheet to you,
Veronica). It's a great course!

It's your permanent, so it's your call, but if your ride is
originating in Anchorage, I'd encourage you to create one course that
goes north toward Eklutna (the village or the lake??) (you could
include the out-and-back to the Eagle River Nature Center), or Palmer
(Vagabond Blues!)/Knik (Out-and-back to the wooden bridge), or even up
toward Sutton or Houston (there are some beautiful, quiet backroads up
by the Nancy Lakes); all depending on the distances you're aiming at.
The other course could go south to the top of Turnagain Pass with a
stop in Old Girdwood (The Bake Shoppe?) and/or Portage, or all the way
to the Sea View Cafe in Hope!!

Consider the seasons these rides will get ridden, which routes clear
of snow earlier than the others, potential wind and traffic levels,
and keep in mind other riders' perspective. Other riders will be more
inclined to ride your permanents if they're interesting, safe,
logical, have good, destination-type checkpoints, and aren't overly
straight, simplified and boring, but neither too twisty, confusing,
and too complex.

I think a north version and a south version would be really
satisfying, both for the perm designer, and the riders. Another thing
to keep in mind. While we don't have all the little villages Europe
has, we actually have a lot of small communities that can be fun to
include. On the southern route, you could have checkpoints at Potter,
or Indian, Bird, or Sunrise, and on the northern route, there's Eagle
River, Birchwood/Chugiak (are they separate?), Peterscreek, Eklutna
Village, Knik, Lazy Mountain, Buffalo Soapstone, Sutton/Alpine or
Houston, Willow, Big Lake, Hatcher Pass, Fairview/Knik, etc.

Oh, and schools and parks can make good intermediate info controls.

Here's are Rules for Permanent Owners:
http://www.rusa.org/permrules.html

Also, the RBA Procedures are helpful too:
http://www.rusa.org/Download/RBAProcedures.htm

BTW, Buzz's idea of Girdwood/Hope/Summit Lake/Girdwood is exactly
200K! That's a fantastic variation!! Write it up and submit it, Buzz!

Good luck on designing your course! Be creative! And give it a fun
name. The Muni website has some good online maps that show the bike
trails. That might help with transitioning riders through Anchorage.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm glad to help.