I have a solitary, not at all lofty, goal when it comes to my winter riding–get outside at least once a week for a real ride. See, not that lofty. However it can still be pretty hard to accomplish.
Since last Saturday’s ride in the ice, snow, mud, and melting slop of mid-Michigan I failed to get out. Rain, freezing rain, thunder snow, sleet, time, freelance work, house hunting, and more got in the way. Hell, I would have settled for at least snowshoeing or some hiking, but even that was put on the back burner. Instead I squeezed in a few treadmill and strength training workouts to try to shed some calories, which I then promptly put back on with about 14 pieces of pizza–and nearly an equal amount of beers–at the end of the week. Such is life.
Finally on Friday night the temps dropped enough to freeze a lot of the snirt road mush, so I snuck out for a quick roll on the studded Fatterson on Saturday. The condition and the ride were nearly the same as last week, but not entirely.
My original plan was to do one of two Michigan based fat bike races this weekend, but I have NO desire to race a fat bike when there is no [real] snow to ride on. To me that is like having sex with your clothes on, but nowhere near as fun. I once again rolled the Fatterson with my cameras and experienced a bit of everything: packed snow, solid rutted ice, mud, slush, potholes, craters, standing water, and a cold wind out of the south/southwest.
The conditions weren’t nearly as bad as last weekend, but they still weren’t great, especially as the day warmed up a bit. To quote my late grandmother I wish this winter would “shit, or get off the pot.” In other words–snow and be winter, or don’t snow and be dry! Stop with the wet, slushy, sleet and freezing rain. It’s f*cking depressing and useless for outdoor activities. Unless you like riding in a frozen wasteland of wintertime shit, which I don’t, but seem to do anyway because if I didn’t I’d never leave the house.
So, that’s what I did today for a couple of hours. It wasn’t all that fun, but it was tolerable and better than doing nothing at all.
The wind wasn’t blowing that hard, probably about 15 mph or so, but it was a cold wind and I regretted opting for just a fleece skull-cap under my helmet instead of a balaclava to keep my fat face warm. Lesson learned.
I would be lying if I said that I loved riding out in this shit and that I wasn’t longing for hot summer days. But I would also be lying if I said that I didn’t have some fun riding in said shit.
I got a few OK pics with the Fuji and a few others with the Canon s95, but nothing too great. I still had fun shooting some stuff though, and just like the ride beat not riding at all, the photos beat not taking any at all.
Another busy week awaits, but I am hopeful for that there will be at least that ONE day outside to make it all worthwhile.
Later.