Snow Riding Weekend

This weekend has been about riding in the snow.

Friday I left work a little early and headed to Lambert Park to help prepare the course for the Frozen Hog race on Saturday. When I arrived around 5 pm everyone was leaving - the work was done. So I joined my wife for one lap around the course. Except for a few soft spots, the course was hard-packed snow that held up the bikes and provided pretty good traction. But it was still rutted and slippery enough that I never felt completely stable riding it. I was tentative at first, but got faster as I went along. There were two climbs and it felt good to get the legs and blood pumping. One section (Zag) was very narrow and I was concentrating very hard to stay on line. We completed the 3.5 mile loop with not much daylight left. My hands kept getting cold (I should have worn my thicker gloves), but otherwise I kept warm. I fell over once, but the snow was so soft it just made me laugh. One aside: due to a miscommunication my wife didn't bring my cycling clothes so I had to scrounge what I had in the car which had me in road shoes, no chamois, and my road helmet - it worked fine, but I looked mismatched. I really enjoyed the ride - I just get a kick out of the unstable and off-beat feeling of riding snow.

Saturday I helped out with the Frozen Hog. I directed people at the registration tables, then took some photos of the race start and first lap, then called in rider's plate numbers as they came into the finish. Here's Jolene heading out for the first lap:





And here's the finish line:



Sadly, the course didn't hold up well to all the bikes and the packed snow crumbled into dry mush. The first lap wasn't too bad for the racers out front, but everyone suffered on the second lap. Well, I guess with all the snow we've had we should be grateful it was rideable at all.

Afterward there were the raffles and awards. Here's Elden (FatCyclist) thanking people for supporting the fight against cancer by buying raffle tickets for the Marin 29er bike you see:



Dan was the lucky winner and here he is being presented with the bike:



After helping clean up a bit, we went home and I considered what I should do for the rest of the day. I talked with Steve about snowshoeing, but my snowshoes were in the other car my daughter took to the rec center. I could do some cross country skiing. But seeing everyone ride got me anxious to go for a spin. So I jumped on the mountain bike and headed up into the foothills near Provo Canyon. I went up the service road above the cemetery. The city plows it, but it's still snow-packed. It climbs 600' at first then stays fairly after that. The climb felt good, although I seem to have lost some stamina. Once on the flats I put it in the middle ring and tried to ride fast. At the end of the plowed road I took this shot looking out to the mouth of the canyon and Orem, Provo and Utah Lake beyond:



And here's a shot looking up at Mount Timpanogos shrouded in cloud:



On the way back I tried to go faster and keep it above 12 mph. It felt good to open it up and push my legs. I hit 20 mph on one ever-so-slightly downhill spot. Going back down the climbs was fun, but a bit skittery. Back at home I took a nice, hot shower to warm up.

All-in-all a good time on the bike, in the snow - strange bedfellows, but it was fun to do something different.