Turned Back by Snow...Again

Another well intended ride loop turned into an out-and-back due to an unforeseen circumstance...aka snow and plenty of it. The warmer weather here has me salvating to do one of my longish, super-duper-climbing-fest-mountain-bike loops, but it seems that I will have to wait a bit longer for the snow to melt. Last year in mid-March there was much less snow up there than now...evidently it was a banner snow year in the higher country this past season.

So instead of the planned 70-mile loop I had to settle for a 60ish mile ride to see some snow (actually I rolled in it some leaving an Eric angel riding a bike).

Nothing to complain about since it was the first day this year that I've been able to ride in shorts and without sleeves all day! Plus riding my Ellsworth Truth with the Pacenti Neo-Moto 650B tire up front is beyond your wildest pleasure to ride all day.

The Gunnar Continued

The Gunnar Crosshairs has been getting the gentle loving break-in (aka super-duper all out thrash-testing) that I give every new bike I come aquire. The results thus far after 3-rides (226 road miles) in sun, rain, and even some snow have left me with big smiles and some tired legs.

(Please wipe the slobber off your computer screen)




The Salsa bars I'm using are nice, but they are still the typical and stupidly "traditional" road-type bars that have very little ergonomic design built in which makes my long-ride comfort somewhat less than desirable. I may yet change these out for some On-One Midge bars...a rather odd (and old) design that my hands and wrists seem to like for the most part.





I also have been having some fun revisiting canti-lever brakes again...they're always more interesting to set-up properly. The Paul's cantis are a fine piece of equipment and work well, wet or dry, so far.












Speaking of on the road...I like a little road ride now and then, but I still find road riding much less interesting than a back road (gravel grinder) any day. Hmmm...I will have to expand the testing to dirt some time soon, but I'm in no hurry since I have several capable gravel-grinder monster-cross bikes eager to take on the task at any time.

At this time I am running the drive train in the big ring (an all-around 48-tooth) since I am not sure if I really need a front derailleur yet. On the road the 48t combined with a 12-25 cassette seems to be plenty for both climbing and flat speeds, but I'm sure that once I hit some of those steep gravel ginder hills that I will be begging for that small ring. Overall the bike is still in rough draft form and I'm sure a few more changes (parts) are in the works (some sooner, some later)...I have not even put on my final bar tape since I am am still fine-tuning the fit for that perfect sweet-spot I seek out on every bike.

Gunnar #2

It seems that my obsession to own-and-ride-every-bike-ever-made continues...meet Gunnar #2, a Crosshairs (that means it's a cyclocross bike that I intend to use as an all around ride).

Why #2? Because this is my 2nd Gunnar, my last one was a 29er mountain bike that a guy named Felix now owns.

This sweet steel frame arrived recently and of course I immediately built it up into a rideable condition. I ordered the frame with a Gunnar steel fork that Brice (owner of B&L Bicycles in Pullman, WA) talked this semi-weight weenie into because it provides "a better ride than carbon on the rough roads and other stuff" according to him. Well all I can say about the steel fork is WOW!!!...it provides a ride that beyond smooth, beyond belief...THANKS BRICE!!!

Even though I have extreme lustful bike desires for many bikes out there, I must admit that they have slowed to a near halt lately because of pure satisfaction with my current rides and this one is no exception.

The Meltdown Has Begun

It appears the great spring melt-down has begun in the higher elevations, but the weather is still a risky mix at any given time. One of my favorite 60-mile MTB loops that I typically ride all winter has been rather impassable this year (lots of snow or blown in snow). Well maybe it was open quite a bit, but not during the times when I was up there staring at the wall of snow in my path.






The first two pics here are where the wall of snow existed, but some nice county chap must have cleared it with his monster tractor (thanks I say) because just a few weeks ago I ventured way up there again to find that the majority of my preferred route had been cleared allowing a fun ride through snow canyons.







But not all of it has been cleared...













Which means I had to ride a bit more pave than I desire (dirt is better anytime), but in the end it was still fun (I guess)...

I've been back several times over the last few weeks and have noticed the snow walls have diminished from canyon walls to small drifts. But the weather is still a terror up there at times...the first ride I started out in sunshine (ahh...great stuff), which progressed into a soaking downpour. I had time to pull out my rain jacket and tent it over me and part of the bike. Just as quickly as it started it ended. A bit higher up I was in a white-out of ice/snow-pellets (aka "graupel").


What next? Wind! Ouch was all I could say going home struggling to maintain forward momentum going downhill into the wind (30 miles of pedaling into a strong head-wind can make anyone wimper some).



After all the weather mishaps on my first trip up there this year I was back 3-days later smiling all the way because ironically nearly the same thing happened again. What should you take home from this lesson??? Always be prepared. I've had people pick up my pack with a grunt and ask what's in there? Survival...nothing more, nothing less.

The Climb is Always On

It seems I have a terrible desire to climb long, steep hills on a bike...While suffering up many climbs I have thought about why I feel a need to do this kind of torturous thing to myself. It's so bad that there have been times I've gotten to the top of a long 12-20% grade just to turn around so I can climb it again. That is totally insane...What it wrong with me??? I have yet to answer this question that my internal voice asks everytime my legs are burning up a hill.




I still do stop and enjoy the good stuff along the way though - like here on the bridge over Asotin Creek (about 20 miles from home) I am in the classical "Largent" position (for those who don't know, Largent is a road-tourist type that can be found in the nap-position nearly anywhere). I typically stop here to refuel, enjoy the sounds from the creek, the warmth of the sun, and ponder on which of 4-rides I really want to suffer up from this point on. On this day I chose to head up the South Fork Asotin Creek (uhmm...very steep at the start) until I ran into sticky mud and snow (which was not very far up as you can see from the first steep point on the profile) then I venture back down and up Campbell grade (1000 feet up in about 1-mile, which means it's a tad steep). Total climbing this day was ~4300 feet.
A few days later I found myself riding up George Creek Grade and beyond. I turned around after I decided it was getting a tad late to keep going without any lights on the bike. At the bottom of the grade I turned the Ellsworth 650B around to climb up the hill again just to be sure I would finish off any excess energy I still had (4700 feet total climbing this day). I recovered by going to work and running my buns off for a few days at the always busy TriState Hospital Emergency Department (because that is where I work). In between some of these medium-lenth mountain-bike rides I typically make a few loops (2-6 usually depending time) at Hells Gate State Park. The middle of the profile below is 2-loops at Hells Gate that I did on my single-speed (2900 feet of climbing). I can hardly wait for the snow to melt so I can get back to doing more of those 8-10,000+ foot days! As always anyone is welcome to ride with me.

Catch Your Protein-On-The-Go

It appears to be well on the way, although I'm a bit skeptical about its early arrival...what am I talking about? Spring!!! The early signs have been lurking around ever since the snow melted a few weeks back with daily temps in the mid-40s to mid-50s. The best sign (nutritious too) is the abundance of fresh flying protein...aka bugs that have a knack for flying into unprotected eyes and deep into any open mouth. I have found that these early bugs are quite tasty, tender, and easy to chew (yum), unlike the tough old summer bugs.





Other indicators that spring is here is the return of the green grass (yuk...that means mowing the lawn - such a waste of time) and spring flowers that are currently blooming around my house.






I still think it's a few weeks too early, but I've not been complaining any since the riding is beyond spectacular everywhere I go.

Freeze-Thaw Cycle

Cycling lately has been a skill seeking experience on ice and snow then transitioning into slick mud over a frozen underlayer (that means it's ultra-slick mud). The daily freeze-thaw cycle is definitely an adrenalin rush both on and off the pave. Over the past several days it has been a white knuckle experience riding the ice-patch pave down to the river path (which has it's own well disguised 2-wheel sliding ice patches) to Hellsgate State Park for a few loops around and down the Devil's Slide. A few days ago there was about 4-inches of snow out there that made coming down the Devil's Slide a real skill-builder.

Since then it has been slowly melting away leaving an icy underlayer in some places and mud over ice in others. Well needless to say the entire area becomes a slippery 2-wheel challenging ride (makes for big grins as long as you have the skill to stay upright which I have thus far). The 650b Pacenti Neo-Moto and Bontrager Jones ACX tire combo on my Ellsworth truth has yet to be beat by any other tire combo I have on my 29ers for traction in this stuff.



The only downfall I've had is cleaning up the messy bikes after each ride...which I must say is always worth the effort since I'm getting 25-40 miles of fun play out of it.







What are you doing for fun??? Spinning indoors? Watching TV? Anyone is welcome to join me...

Spinning and Then Some

While many avid, dedicated cyclist are spinning their buns off indoors (huh...where it's a bit warmer), I just can't bring myself to do such a torturous thing...for me spinning on a trainer is beyond yuk and boring after the first 5-minutes. For those of you that can spin indoors, you have my respect. I would rather do my spinning in the cold where I sometimes freeze my buns off. As long as I can keep my feet warm I will stay out for hours enjoying wintery environment few dare to brave on two wheels.

My road rides have been on the rather old Motobecane I have set up as a single-speed (it is the only road bike I currently own). I call this bike the Super-Bee just because it looks like a bumble bee. It's has gone through some minor modifications in recent times...like a new crank (one that's not bent helps just a tad in spinning), some On-One Midge bars, new wheels (actually some used wheels I had laying around)...the bike feels like a hot rod compared to the original version. I'm happy spinning it almost anywhere except the steepest hills and it's a great commuter for me. Today was just another awesome spinning day on this bike down the Snake River (with some real wind for resistance just to keep me honest).

Off-road and snowy-day rides have been on my Ellsworth mostly (the more I ride this bike the more I like it), but I still spend some quality time on the Gary Fisher Ferrous 29er single-speed (another bike I really like).

Spent a bit of time in Montana recently also. We found some deep snow up on top of Lolo Pass along the MT-ID border...of course I had to go and play in it before driving some more....

This is My Domain

Yesterday started out gray and dreary...It's on days like this that I need to ride to bring my soul up out of the lowly "winter" blues, which are actually brought on by these dark cloudy days...hmmm a living paradox. According to climatology trends this area (Clarkston, WA/Lewiston, ID) averages 60 cloudy days out of 62 days in December and January...that's only 2-sunny days in 2-months...no wonder I (as well as many others in this area) get the winter blues so bad. Anyway, a ride always perks me up and makes me feel like SuperMan again...the hard part seems to be getting my fat butt out the door and onto the bike. I tried to rally my low desire to do anything by calling the SeanMan, but he was napping...something he probably deserves since he rides more than anyone else I know.

I eventually did get out at the end of the day only to be bathed in some golden sun while snow squalls loomed all around...to say the least it was one of the best days of riding I've had in some time. I rode my Ellsworth Truth 650B bike out to Hells Gate State Park and proceeded to rip up the trails with some big smiles and lots of speed...yeah I was feeling like SuperMan. Not another soul was out there, it was all mine, and I thought...This is my domain.

The ride on the Ellsworth set up with a 650B Pacenti Neo-Moto tire up front is still beyond belief. It's hard to phathom that this bike build may be one that I will actually keep for more than a year, but I love the ride this bike provides.

It was soooo good that I did not want to go home, but dark did come and...well...it got cold in a hurry.