Dry Winter Ride

Another Saturday, another winter mountain bike ride. But it was so warm and the trails so dry it was hard to believe it's winter.

I was going to meet up with Keith, Dan and crew to ride, but I was running late and didn't want to take more time detouring around the canal construction so I went up the water tank road. When I got to the top I looked down Zorro for 5 minutes but couldn't see any riders so I went on.

(I was a little relieved. All those guys are fast and I didn't feel like being the sweep.)

It was high 30s when I left the house but by the time I hit Betty it was in the mid-40s. And the trails were either bone dry or nicely snow-packed. Wonderful conditions.

After passing the Altar I took Upper Belt to 051. Up top I got nice views of the valley.



This is how much snow there was at the highest point. Crazy for mid-January.



I was wary of ice descending into Dry Canyon, but it was just as Rick said, gripy packed snow. The two steep spots were more exciting with the snow.

When I arrived at the Dry Canyon trail I wanted more so I pushed the 150 yards up to the connector trail over to Curly Springs. It was almost all dry and good to ride.



When wet the top is sticky mud, I was happy it was dry. I went a little ways up Curly Springs and it was dry, I was tempted to ride it but I had to get back to take my boy laser tagging. So I took a steep little trail that dumped me onto the old road with the gate at the bottom and then took the gate bypass trail.

I meandered down some other trails then took BST back. Does this look like winter?



On the way down I ran into Steve W., and a bit later, Adam and new neighbor Jeff. Adam had passed Jolene earlier, which I was glad to hear that she was out riding.

The laser tag place was jammed so we left after getting our reservation. We hoped to see some hang gliders / paragliders at the Point, but the wind had just shifted. So we roamed around Cabela's then hit the laser tag, Rachel, Kara, Kade and I. We had fun.

Another very fun Saturday ride. Such a strange winter.