We tried some different track to mix things up a bit and hopefully avoid the crowds. We hit the north side trails and climbed Braggin Rights to connect to Long Distance and climb up to the junction of Reconnect, Long Distance, and Demi-Tel. We opted to continue up Long Distance to Disconnect and Telephone Loop. As soon as we headed north at the junction we were on the paths less-traveled. This was truly fat-bike worthy terrain! If you strayed from the slightly-packed trail, even a little, your tire was doing a plunge. Put a foot down to stay upright and that foot sank hip-deep in the powder. Add a little speed to that on a descent and you were laughing in a pile of snow (Gerry demonstrated). At times, climbing, your rear wheel would sink a little and/or spin out. This was no terrain for your standard mountain bike! Somehow that put a smile on my face.
We had hoped to pick up Long Distance again at the top of Telephone Loop and ride that as a loop back to the junction. But no one had traveled it and the bikes don't float on 2 feet of untraveled snow. So we retraced our tracks rather than hit the track-set on the west section of Telephone Loop. We didn't think the skiers would appreciate that!
Hefting that 36lb beast up 2200 feet in elevation was that kind of suffering you need to REALLY love biking to endure and actually enjoy, which I did -- a lot! What a wicked fun day on the fat bike. An awesome way to kick off a new year The parking lot was crammed full and cars were parked at least a km out on the road side when we were leaving but we had run into only one skier, a couple of hikers carrying snowshoes, and a group of fat bikers as we were heading back out. We picked a good route to avoid the masses of families on skis and snowshoes!
Happy New Year everyone! Here's to tons of fun outside again this year!
