This morning I looked at my thermometer and it was a lovely 29 degreees out. There was no wind, and as best I could see it was not snowing, although there was snow on the ground. I got dressed in my multi layer of clothing, got my bike and went outside only to see that it was snowing. Oh well, I decided to go anyway. I took off towards Kerry's house figuring I probably would not see him.
The ride to Kerry's had the peaceful, still of the night feeling. You know the one you get when you walk in the dark and all you hear is the cruch of your feet and your breath lingers before it floats softly into the night. It was the same this morning only it was the crunch of the tires as I rode through fresh snow.
I made it to Kerry's with out any problems, and to my surprise and delight Kerry was there. This was good as I did not want to ride by myself for my first snow ride. I really did not know what to expect with the snow, and was worried about being able to ride without spinning out.
As we rode Kerry gave me some pointers on riding in the snow. They were very helpful as I did not realize that riding in unplowed snow is actually easier than riding in plowed. However, I did find out during the ride this was the case. When the snow has been plowed or ridden on it can be very slippery.
Kerry and I rode up 2000 North and Dry Creek road. Amazingly Dry Creek road was plowed, but 2000 North was not. I wonder if they have a private plow come in for them? Going up Dry Creek to the parking lot was okay for the first half, but the second half was a bit slippery. There was a thin layer of ice under the snow, and as my tire cut through the snow to the ice and I slipped and slid as I tried to keep my bike going up the road instead of towards the side of the road. Eventually I made it to the top, but boy did my back hurt.
At the top Kerry and I decided to go to BST South. I thought it would be better to go downhill for my first ride in the snow instead of up. We took off down the trail and it was not 12 feet before I was slidding all over the trail, yelling "woah" and trying to keep from going off the edge and down the hill. Apparently there was ice under the trail, and I did a great job at finding it.
This little slide made me a bit apprehensive about continuing on, but I decided to perservere. We rode on, and I continued to struggle trying to stay on the trail. When we got to a slight uphill I ended up walking as I could not get my bike started to go up the hill. This caused me to get snow and ice in my cleats. Which of course meant I could not clip in. At the top of the hill Kerry let me go first which actually helped as that way I stayed out of his bike trail and had a little bit better grip.
Of course since I could not clip in I was quite the hoot to watch. It was like watching a beginner going down their first big hill and they have never ridden before. I went down the hill with both feet out using it to balance and plow through the snow. This worked for the most part, but when it came time to go up a hill I couldn't get my momentum up so I usually ended up walking. Luckily it was only for a short distance.
We ended our ride on R & R and dropped in to the road. I would have liked to have done the whole trail, but since my skills were like a beginners and time was short we had to cut the ride short. I loved the ride, and can't wait for when I have more time to ride and practice learning to ride in the snow.
Picture of me on the trail.
