Winter is slowly letting go of its icy grip on central Michigan. Still, I wouldn’t quite call it ideal weather for big base mile road and gravel riding, but it’s becoming more doable every day.
As you may or may not have seen in my last post, up north a bit winter is still rolling along, so today I took advantage of some extra time, shot up for another fat bike ride on the nordic ski trails at Hanson Hills and had another go at winter before it’s gone. [To reiterate, Hanson is done grooming for the 2013/14 season and the trails are open to all traffic, including fat bikes, riding these trails was done legally].
The ski and tubing hills are still covered with snow, yet were void of people, the small lake was frozen over and my car was the only one in the entire lot. It was sort of eerie and a bit like I had 35 km of trails as my personal winter playground (one of the few benefits of being an active non-contributing member of society.. sigh).
Regardless of my inability to contribute to society, I was intent on enjoying a ride. My plan was to do about 15 miles and head home ASAP to get some shit done and be sure I was there to fetch B-Man at school. Due to the fact I was having a great time, feeling good and making decent time (not to mention I blew through an intersection missing my chance to head back to the lodge) I ended up doing the Red and Yellow trails with a twist of Brown and cross-overs trails thrown in and got in over 20 miles (or 32.1 km for all your skiers and runners). BONUS: I am pretty sure that when riding a 37 lb. fat bike that equals roughly 50 miles (give or take a few miles).
In any event, I had a blast and was a bit shocked at the fact I felt OK on the bike. I have to say I was a bit happy about that, considering that I am racing riding the 32 mile race at the Barry-Roubaix on Saturday, 12 more miles than I have ridden in one go in this calendar year, ha!
With little snow down here in Mount-Peezy, some rain in the forecast (for both here Grayling) and a busy-ish schedule (including the Barry-Roubaix on Saturday and taking some needed steps to contribute to society), this may have been my last snow ride on the Pugsley (or at least the last ride in such ideal winter conditions). I have to say, I am not all that sorry about that. This winter has been long and brutally harsh, purchasing the used Pugs really helped me keep some of my dwindling mental mojo. I thought I could get by this winter on XC skis, but I finally accepted the fact that I hate to ski and feel dumb doing it. Yep, a 37+ pound, beast of a clown bike saved my winter. I am looking to the next 7 to 8 months ( I hope) of riding my other bikes, but with a fat bike waiting for me in the Not-so-Stankment, I MIGHT not approach winter 2014/15 with the same level of hatred that I did this year (but I probably will).