Monday, December 29, 2008

Last MTB ride of 2008?

After Saturday's slushy ride on the Qball I thought it might be better to try some gears in the snow on Sunday. Looking at the temperature guage Sunday morning it was 55 degrees! Not only was the snow melting but it was foggy with the warm temps.

Decided to check out the other side of the forest road off of Echo Valley and it appeared that might have been an ATV in the snow early on. The low laying fog gave the forest an eerie look.

Riding the 'Horse makes a big difference in the snow because having the lower gears makes it easier to pedal in the snow, believe it or not.

Of course, a gratuitous bike porn shot is always called for. In the background are the two stream crossings that I call Via Roma and the Viaduct.

The combination of the warm air and rapidly melting snow made the temperature fluctuations pretty extreme. You would get blasts of cold air that felt like 30 degrees and then air that was twice as warm. I started out wearing riding jacket and longsleeve jersey but by the time I hit the forest road I had to shed the jersey. Of course, other mistake I made was not having some fenders.

Checking my SportTracks software after this ride puts me at 100+ miles over what I rode last year but if when I break it down by categories: Trail, Commuting, Greenways, Road; my biggest trail miles year was 2007. I have way more commuting miles this year

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed reading about your 2008 journeys and I am looking foward to your 2009 adventures.