February Groundhog rides

[north woods gal]

5" of wet, heavy snow overnight and we're forecast to get another 5", tomorrow night. Whoa!

I did ride my snow covered trails as much as my legs would allow, though. As you might suspect, riding any bike, even a fat bike, in 5" of thick wet snow is no picnic. I did it mostly out of curiosity and to also practice handling a bike in that kind of snow and, okay, I can't resist a challenge. Been riding all winter and I'm in good shape, but, even so, I only lasted a bit under two miles before my legs went noodles on me. I was actually surprised to even do that.

On a techno note, I give a lot of credit to the expensive, very aggressive fat bike tires that I bought, just for these conditions. Still had fishtailing, but way less than other tires I've tried in deep snow. Also, for the record, with each pass over a section of trail, the snow compresses, more, and the pedaling gets easier.

I did try the XC skis, right off, this morning. Got in a hurry and figured the skis wouldn't need any fresh wax. Wrong! Didn't get thirty yards and the skis iced up, bad. Headed back home and waxed them, which I should have done, right off. Will try, again, tomorrow.