Today is Wednesday. My place of employment sent me home after a half day of work. Things got slow. It was perfect timing for me. Yesterday we had a snowstorm that dropped 4-6 inches of fresh snow on us. It was followed by temps dropping below zero last night. That’s a recipe for good fatbiking.
This is what a freshly groomed snowmobile trail looks like.
The local mountain bike club did did some grooming of their trails this morning. Normally I’d head for those. But I wasn’t convinced those would be firmed up yet. Since it was a Wednesday afternoon I didn’t expect there’d be many snowmobiles out. So I opted to ride the local snowmobiles trails instead. They too were freshly groomed. And by the looks of it I just missed seeing the groomer. I ended up riding for 3 hours. The sunshine, the fresh snow, and the promise of another warm-up by Friday. I took full advantage of my afternoon off.
I just can’t ride past this overlook on Bardons Peak without taking a picture. I apologize if you’ve seen this shot many times before.
Crossing the Magney-Snively Cross Country Ski Trails. Also groomed today.
I’ve been a cross-country skier for 38 years. But the last 11 winters I’ve averaged one ski day a year. Why? That’s how long I’ve had my Pugsley. All my outdoor time playing in the snow is now done on a fatbike. These freshly groomed cross country ski trails were calling to me, but I was on my Pugsley.
By the time I got home the sun was setting and I was exhausted. It was a good day on the fatbike.
Smoke and steam from the stacks below show the lack of wind.
I had high hopes for getting in some good fatbiking rides this weekend. After the two week long January thaw there was nothing but ice everywhere. Earlier in the week we got a 3 inch snowfall. That was just enough to cover the ice. A dip in temperatures down around zero, and below, insured it would compact nicely onto the ice. Mid-week the local mtb club posted they had done some grooming. Things were looking up for getting back out onto the trails without having to worry about ice. The loop in Brewer Park was one of the sections that was groomed. Saturday I left the house and rode the one mile to the trailhead to access the Brewer Park trails.
This is along the road on the way to the trail head.
It was quite pleasant with warm temps, 20F degrees, and no wind. Dense cloud cover made for low light conditions. It was hard to take photos. I was somewhat disappointed with the conditions. It wasn’t what I was expecting. The trail was covered in frozen footprints. If you’ve ever ridden over frozen footprints, you’ll know it’s not fun. Even fat tires don’t smooth those out. The fatbikers that use the local trails are good about not using the trails when they’re too soft. The walkers and runners don’t seem to be aware they’re leaving depressions. If you’re leaving depressions runners and walker’s you need to use snowshoes or stay off the groomed trails. I felt pretty beat up by the time I was finished with the loop. Here’s some more pictures from the day:
I didn’t feel like repeating the beating I took on Saturday, but I still wanted to get in a ride on snow. The first 9 years of owning my fatbike I rode the local snomo trails. Two years ago is when I switched to riding mostly mtb trails. That’s when the building of mtb trails came to my neighborhood. Plus, as the popularity of fatbikes exploded the Minnesota DNR strongly suggested fatbikes should not use snomo trails for safety reasons. Today being Superbowl Sunday, I figured many people would be at pre-game gatherings rather then out on their snow machines. I was correct. In two hours on the trails only 12 snomo machines passed me. I ALWAYS yield to them by stopping and stepping completely off the trail to let them pass.
Today was completely different. The sun shine was bright and fantastic. The February sun is warm enough to stay comfortable when stopped out of the wind. The temp was 15F degrees and the wind was light. It was just about perfect conditions to be out on the trails. It felt great to be out on the trails I spent 9 years on. It’s where I did all my training for the two Arrowhead Ultra 135’s I started. Over the years I put in over 7,000 miles of fatbiking on snow on these trails. It was glorious to be back out on these trails once again.
The first full weekend of 2017 included more of this:
Saturday
Sunday
Sunday was much more overcast but just as fun.
If things go as planned, next weekend report should be a bit different. Winter camping is being planned. No bikes, we’ll be using snowshoes and pulks. It’s been 6 or 7 years since I’ve had a friend interested in trying winter camping. This trip is one we planned almost one year ago. I ended up cancelling that one at the last minute due to windy conditions with temps in the -20F degree range. Not the best conditions to take a first time winter camper on. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Turns out the last two rides of 2016 were on snow with the Pugsley. My favorite kind of riding I do all year. I had been feeling a bit under the weather all week. Other people around me have been sick. Susan had a cold virus and several co-workers were sick, but were at work. I never had full-blown symptoms, but I wasn’t feeling quite right and needing a lot of sleep.
Over Christmas we had a storm that brought lots of rain in our neighborhood, sleet and some wet snow. I thought for sure the good snow conditions we had on the local mtb trails would have been gone. Replaced with a layer of slick ice. As the week went on I was hearing reports of prime riding conditions. A layer of crust had formed from the mixed precipitation. It was supposed to be excellent riding, no studs needed. Here’s one report in particular. This report says: “the conditions are freakaliciously sweet!” To top it off the three amazing pictures in the report were taken on the trails less than 1 mile from my house.
With the weather forecast calling for a chance of significant snow in a few days, I knew I had to get out and enjoy the current conditions. It just so happens I worked a half day on Friday, the 30th. As I left the house on the Pugsley it started to snow pretty steady. The reports were true. The riding was amazing and the snow coming down was an extra wintery bonus. I rode The Duluth Traverse through Brewers Park and the Piedmont Trails and back. And then down Keene Creek, where the pictures in the above link were taken.
Today, the 31st, the sun was out with temps around 20F. Yesterday’s snow amounted to about 1 inch. I headed in a different direction to see if the new trails between the Zoo and Spirit Mountain Ski Area were in good riding condition or not. They too were in excellent shape. Only a handful of tracks in the fresh snow. I only saw one other person on this section. One and half miles of this section I have never ridden. It was built just this Fall. It was an incredibly nice stretch of trail. Here’s today’s photos:
I look forward to winter. I keep saying the funnest riding I do all year is the riding I do on snow with my Surly Pugsley in snow. I get giddy when the forecast calls for a snow storm. This year we had a very warm November. A very late frost, perhaps a record late frost. The wait for snow has been much longer than normal. But when the weather did change, it was abrupt. The two pictures above were taken from the same spot one week apart. Open water in one, snow covered ice in the other. I’ve been giddy. Saturday we had just enough snow to make it feel like snowbiking. I hit the MTB trails in my neighborhood. The temperature was 10F/12C degrees. That definitely made it feel like winter, finally.
There were other fatbikers out on the trails on Saturday as well. I remember when I bought my Pugsley, I rode all winter for 6 years before I saw another fatbike on the local trails I was using. What a change.
Sunday we had fresh snow when I woke up and light snow all day. By time I got out on the trails in the afternoon there was a powdery 2″ layer of the fresh stuff. I decided to avoid the MTB specific trails and ride some of the neighborhood multi-use trails. Mostly for a change of scenery from the Saturday ride. Some of these trails are snowmobile trails once there is enough snow. Right now there’s not enough for the snowmobiles to use the trails. To keep this short the rest of this post will be a picture post from my Sunday ride.
So good to have the winter season underway. If this would turn out to be a cold winter we could have snow on the ground until April. That’s a lot of snow bike rides to look forward to.
four season cycling 