My Second Winter Ride

Took my MTB out for the first time since W.O.W. today, after a long debate between it and the cross bike. Cross bike was fun yesterday, but I wanted to ride as much single track as possible so the MTB seemed better suited. After getting used to the cross bike, the MTB felt like a monster truck with its fat squishy tires and 80mm of sus up front. It felt slow and I felt tired, but the trails were nice and frozen and very fun to ride. Some of the open sections thawed out in the midday sun, but they were fairly avoidable and easy to see.

I rode my usual 50km loop, but after cutting some trails near the end that I suspected would be to soft, my total was just over 45km for the day. Trail of the day was the Swayzy Falls loop (trail 1) in Shorthills. It was my fav becaused it was all frozen, seemed smoother than usual and the sections that are mud bogs all summer were actually dry!

Today's antifreeze of choice was Appleton Estate rum. It kept my water in its liquid state, but I realized I don't like rum, so I won't use that again. I think keeping one bottle in your jersy pouch at a time and rotating after drinks is the best way to prevent freezing; unless you like rum.

View from top of Hogsback

Frozen Swayze Falls

Cool technical line on trail 1

My bike took a crap on my garage floor

Disgusting....

Good thing I didn't bring it inside to thaw.