Alaskan is a pioneer of back-country unicycling

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- In Alaska, backcountry unicycling begins with one name -- George Peck.

Peck, a Seward magistrate, was one of the inventors of the sport more than a decade ago, riding his one wheel over the rocks and roots of the Johnson Pass Trail, the 2,600-foot Resurrection Pass, Seward beaches and countless trips up thigh-burning Crown Point Mine Road, one of Alaska's tougher mountain bike trails.

"He's definitely the grandfather of mountain unicycling," said Kris Holm, who lives in Vancouver, Can. and is considered one of the best mountain unicyclists in the world.

"He's an individualist. He's not afraid to do something that's outside the norm, plus he's such an athletic guy," Holm added.

"Most people in uni have a problem-solving mentality. People who are used to challenges, used to not getting something right the first time. That's George."

Today, Peck is, well, slowing down a bit. Not that he'd ever say such a thing.

"I'm 68," he said, "so I've switched over to bicyling. I reached the end of what I could do on muni pretty much. I blasted all the trails around here.

"At my age, it's not worth falling off every few minutes. But the pavement stuff (on a bike) is good too. I'm learning to wheelie. It's something I can do right out my door."

Back in the 1990s, Peck was exasperated by the lagging unicycle technology.

"These unicycles all have 1940s technology," he said in a 1997 Daily News profile. "They are using very poor metals in the axles. And the seat -- nobody has really figured out the seat yet. And the shoe problem is serious. Someone needs to look into that."

Back then, he and others would build unicycles that could stand up to backcountry pounding. And today, he acknowledges, the equipment is better.

"It's the old 'S' curve -- it takes a certain amount of time to reach critical mass. Today you can get a really good machine for $600-$800."

Holm goes even further, saying you can buy a decent unicyle for $200. He said Peck's innovations, particularly using titanium axles, propelled the sport forward.

"George almost had an advantage coming from Alaska, coming from a state where rugged individualism and thinking outside the box is accepted," said Holm, who first met Peck in 1998 at a mountain unicycling weekend in California.

"No one told him he couldn't do it."

And while mountain unicyling appears to be growing nationally, from Peck's vantage point in Seward, it may be stagnating.

"Some kids are doing it," Peck said, "but a lot of them are just doing street stuff -- you know, whatever's available, but less in the backcountry."

(Find Daily News reporter Mike Campbell online at mcampbell(at)adn.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)