Well today we had the first lowland snow fall of the season, and of course I just had to go ride in it. For those of you that don't know, the western region of Washington doesn't get much snow in the lowlands, maybe once or twice a season depending on the year. When it does happen; people freak out, drive like idiots, run out and buy snow tires/chains, and try and not go anywhere unless absolutely necessary. Me, I try and go riding in the snow on our local trails and have as much fun as possible.
I started the ride pedaling up the South side of Galbraith Mt. on the fire road. This is the Blue Rock, about 1/3 of the way up and the snow is getting deeper.
This shot is looking down the road from where I just came.
Luckily for me and everybody else we have some very dedicated trail crews and they were up there working today in spite of the conditions. This worked out well for me since their rigs made nice tire tracks to ride in all the way up. Without them I would have had to push most of the way (I only had to walk two short sections the whole way up).
Things definitely look pretty wintery at the top.
Never under estimate the desire to drop something even in snow too deep to carry much momentum.
Despite not getting an early start and seeing lots of other bike tracks, I had fresh tracks on Evolution.
The snow in the trees was not really as deep as in the open and provided amazingly good traction. Despite the seemingly great traction I decided to skip the Stinger today.
The very last part of this trail is a little more open and therefore had a bit more snow. Luckily it's all downhill so I just let go of the brakes and more or less surfed down the last part. This pic is looking back up the last section of Evolution after coming down it.
Here's a pic of the bike at the end of Evolution to give you an idea how deep the snow was.
After that I kept working my way down the mountain on various trails, none of which were nearly as snowy or fun as Evolution. I stopped taking pictures as I was starting to get pretty wet and cold and just wanted to finish the ride. All in all it was a hoot riding in the snow and quite different from the normal wet muddy riding this time of year.
Tomorrow I'm hitting the slopes for the first time this season. Mt. Baker is boosting the biggest snow base in all of N. America. With 80 some inches of snow in the last 5 days and over 100 inches of snow base it should be another great snow day for me. WOOHOO!
I started the ride pedaling up the South side of Galbraith Mt. on the fire road. This is the Blue Rock, about 1/3 of the way up and the snow is getting deeper.
This shot is looking down the road from where I just came.
Luckily for me and everybody else we have some very dedicated trail crews and they were up there working today in spite of the conditions. This worked out well for me since their rigs made nice tire tracks to ride in all the way up. Without them I would have had to push most of the way (I only had to walk two short sections the whole way up).
Things definitely look pretty wintery at the top.
Never under estimate the desire to drop something even in snow too deep to carry much momentum.
Despite not getting an early start and seeing lots of other bike tracks, I had fresh tracks on Evolution.
The snow in the trees was not really as deep as in the open and provided amazingly good traction. Despite the seemingly great traction I decided to skip the Stinger today.
The very last part of this trail is a little more open and therefore had a bit more snow. Luckily it's all downhill so I just let go of the brakes and more or less surfed down the last part. This pic is looking back up the last section of Evolution after coming down it.
Here's a pic of the bike at the end of Evolution to give you an idea how deep the snow was.
After that I kept working my way down the mountain on various trails, none of which were nearly as snowy or fun as Evolution. I stopped taking pictures as I was starting to get pretty wet and cold and just wanted to finish the ride. All in all it was a hoot riding in the snow and quite different from the normal wet muddy riding this time of year.
Tomorrow I'm hitting the slopes for the first time this season. Mt. Baker is boosting the biggest snow base in all of N. America. With 80 some inches of snow in the last 5 days and over 100 inches of snow base it should be another great snow day for me. WOOHOO!
