Burma Road Ride

A ride on the "real" Burma Road looks more suited to someone like Lance Armstrong

On Sunday after cleaning out the last remnants of our old apartment I took a bicycle ride from town to Bells Flats - our new neighborhood. Named for a man with the last name Bell who ran a dairy in the area a while back, the "Flats" is about 8 miles out of town. One can either drive the paved road from town to the Flats or, at about the halfway point split off to take Burma Road. No, not the 700-mile road linking Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar) to China, rather an old jeep trail leading from the site of the old Kodiak Navy Base (now the Coast Guard Base) to Bells Flats. While both trails are described as mountainous and rocky, the Kodiak Burma Road is much shorter (3 - 4 miles) and has fewer switchbacks. Both roads, however, were used during WWII. The Asian Burma Road, built by 200,000 Chinese, was used by the British to transport material to China; while the Kodiak version was used to store, demolish and dispose ordnance material. On a bicycle, Burma Road offers beautiful views of Barometer, Cope and Old Womans peaks. I felt lucky to only encounter a couple of hikers and no bear on the ride. Although I did see an older mountain goat kill sprawled out under a tree near the trail.

To reach Bells Flats, behind Old Womans Mtn., follow Burma Road or the paved road on the left.