buried under snow and ice

[elizabethC]

hi all.

well, it snowed madly for a couple of days and after approximately 24 hours of ice rain everything was slick as can be here in the niagara region.

iggy the iguana is sittin right behind me, collecting dust..
oh, if you could only see her, shes propped up, leaning on my stationary bike...ha ha, they make a great pair !!

i've finally excepted that i will have to live my MTB life in the stories off all of you.

it is thawing outside, and thats a good thing, but the weather isn't looking good until the weeks ahead.
i'm still looking forward to coming to the forum and sharing my tales of peril and excitement, but for now, i'm enjoying what you all have to write.:)


from southern ontario... eli

[Irulan]

Originally posted by elizabethC
hi
i've finally excepted that i will have to live my MTB life in the stories off all of you.

OK !!! We had a really nasty ice storm here once, but it was in November.

yesterday I went out to the Beacon hill trails. 2 miles up to the top on a nice twisty singletrack with a moderate but steady grade. Then from the top down some rutted roads with a lot of granite obstacles: your choice of the cheater (easy) lines or various size ledges to roll off of. Then down into the gully through tight switchbacks cut through a piney forest area... I finally got 2/3 of the "nemesis" ones!!
then up the big grade to the main ridge... the trails parallel the ridegeline... rolling singletrack through pine and granite. the trail surface is nice and smooth... with occasional technical lines, and small gullies that are rollers... straight down and then straight up.

I stopped to play on this one boulder for a while. The trail goes right up the back of it at a nice easy grade then you drop off the face. It's not real big, but you have to have good technique.

Then home back the way I came. The best part is back down the two mile climb because there at least a dozen nice banked perfectly shaped s turns, woo hoo!!

Then today I did a ride on the bluff with a couple of friends. Talk about exposure... a good portion of this trail is cut into a really steep sandy cliff. Side hill exposure would be an understatement; not for the faint of heart. Good practice for looking down the trail. Eventually we get down by the creek which just rolls through the forest. We come out in town and ride back through these great neighborhood with beautiful old craftsman homes.

Irulan

[paintgirl]

Elizabeth, I feel your pain, I live near North Bay, and we got 25 cm of snow on Sat, and our winter snow wasn't even all melted yet. I took my old bike out a few weeks ago an an extremely warm day 10 degrees, and thought by this week would have my bike out of the trainer and outside, but no.. I am so envious of warm climates, until the temp goes above 80, then I am crying for cooler, it looks like maybe 12 or 13th up here before warmer weather.. hang in there northerners paintgirl

[cyclechick]

I feel you're pain. OUt in the Detroit area: Ice storm Thursday and Friday, freezing cold all weekend, and now we're getting hammered w/snow. Already looks like 2 inches in about an hour....I want to RIDE!

[Juliette]

I rode on Saturday and it was windy and cold (well, cold for here, like about 60) boo-hoo.

The ride was on an easy trail, about 14 miles, which is in a park east of the city. The little wildflowers were still in bloom and the cactus are starting to bloom. A lot of the flowers are in yellow tones and really stand out against the green grass and weeds. People who say deserts are ugly must never have been here.

I rode with some friends, including one guy I would like to know better, his friend and 4 guys old enough to be my dad. On the downhill part of the trail, Pete slipped in a sandy corner and veered off the trail into the brush. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt, not even scraped up, so it was o.k. to laugh about it.

It was one of those days where I wished I had some kind of box to stuff the day into so I could revisit it later.

Only a couple more weeks of days like this here. You all can think of me when your weather is wonderful and it is 100 + degrees here!

[MightyMitre]

Erm ok - since we're talking about the weather I thought I should add my thoughts ( Since us Brits are supposed to like talking about nothing else!:p )

The weather here for this time of year is being totally normal, involving you being either too cold or too hot for the next 4 weeks, and whatever you wear will be wrong. :)

It will be nice and sunny one day, but with a bitter wind, heavey rain the next day followed by strong wind, changing into more sunshine but this time without the wind - all in the course of a few days! I've finally managed to get round this by wearing everything!

I was at the Tour of Flanders in Belgium at the weekend and took part in an organised ride , along with 10,000 other riders and apart from the rain the weather was all of the above in one day.

I started off with full tights, undervest, 2 jersey's, arm warmers, winter jacket and wind proof vest and ended up with a back pocket stuffed with one of the jerseys and the arms, while I rolled up the sleeves of my winter coat. I then spent the rest of the day zipping up and down my wind proof vest as and when. I would have taken off the tights but i was running out of pockets by then!

It was a great day though,and lovley countryside,with the hedges starting to turn green, the fields all ploughed ready for planting and tulips and daffodills all over the place.