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December 24, 2007
Snow Trails...
I headed up my door yesterday and hopped on my cross bike for a ride. When I left it was about 10 below zero with heavy winds out of the west. I stuffed my riding shoes with toe warmers which made all the difference as my feet were warm for almost the whole ride. I planned to ride the trails from my house out to Elm Creek and stop at the xc-ski lodge to warm up.
The smartest thing I wore yesterday were my ski goggles, which kept the wind off my face and the snow out of my eyes. The trails were packed pretty hard with snow, which made the ride feel like Paris-Roubaix. I muscled my way up to Elm Creek in about an hour. There was not a soul out on the trails and I got some pretty interesting stares from drivers passing by. Once I got to the park, I tried to ride the trails, but found myself standing in 2 feet of snow instead. I headed back to the roads and snaked my way up to another set of trails that had been groomed and packed. I was pretty close to the lodge when the trails pretty much disappeared from beneath me. I could hardly see and ended up doing and endo over my handle bars. A couple of skiers applauded my efforts as they glided past me. I finally was able to find my way to the lodge so I could warm up a bit.
After about 20 minutes warming up I headed back out. I knew I was going to be riding into the winds most of the way home. I put my head down and pretty much just grunted it out. My legs started to feel the effort about 1/2 home. Riding in the snow is like riding on a trainer, there is never a break and you can't really spin at all. After two hours of ride time, I finally pulled into my house.
Later on I headed out to run errands with my family and decided that I had been nuts to try and ride in those conditions. I do believe that yesterday was the cold day I have ever ridden on.
I heard the 318 ride got a handful of riders out. I applaud their efforts and have to shout to Painman for riding solo from the west.
Posted by kermisch at December 24, 2007 8:44 AM