Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Hockleycrest with Bash. Crusty, groomed but not track set, but still nice after spending much of the day in the city.

Workout 2, rehab and some lumberjack.

Gorgeous bluebird day out.
The trail on our property was tough going, even on my snowshoe tracks from a previous day’s attempts to pack it down.
Once I got to the conservation area it improved to fair, then good on the main trail, then excellent on well packed Palgrave East.
I did a mix of single and double track. Great ride!

Back out with snowshoes to break down some more crust-over-soft-snow, hoping it will consolidate into a wider track.

Run in with the big boy back on his e-collar and long line. He was excellent!

Workout 1, plus rehab and a little core, some lumberjack and shovelling.

Neck was sore from biking on Sunday.

Ski in with AD. Fast and crusty out, but the tracks refroze a touch narrower than my skis, so slow and hard work when it wasn't fast on downhills.
May be time to get the spikes or studded tires back out tomorrow.

Icy night ski home.

Drizzly ski in with the big boy. Got a bit of extra in.
Fast ski home- Bazingadog was on a mission.

Scenic with Gally, on last year’s Ski-o map.
Fast conditions.

Bash and I have been curious about the Highlands groomed fat bike trails, so we rented Fat bikes.

The lower trails in the cedars were really nice riding. Once we got higher up into switchbacks that had blown in with new soft snow it became a gong show. If you got anywhere near the side of the groomed track, the bike bogged down even with huge 4.6 x 27.5” tires. When you tried to put a foot down you just postholed in and toppled over like a turtle on its back, which happened quite a few times.

We ended up hike-a-bikeing a lot of the soft stuff, and judging by all the post-hole prints and full-body holes we weren’t alone.

I had gone clipless with my winter biking boots which iced up and wouldn’t clip in, and I took a pretty good beating on some sections. Dunno how you guys ride up high like that, hunched over. I definitely felt my neck after a while, even with an extra-high stem.

Mid way through we hit a wonderful trail in a cedar section that was just magic. Other parts of the woods were excellent too, in full wnter glory, then we hit the soft stuff again. Bash seemed to get the hang of it, and was riding better than me by the end.

The ride out was great, until I clipped a tree with my hand on the bar and went down again hard.

The bikes would have been consistent fun on doubletrack, but fairly narrow and twisty singletrack was tricky in soft conditons. I’d try it again on a firmer day.