I didn’t get to do much riding over the weekend. On Saturday, a server crashed, resulting in some unexpected, but critical, work for a client. I helped get them back up and running, but it took up a good portion of my day.

I did manage to get out for a little ride, but only about 14 miles … I was hoping to ride 30-40. I rode the Friendship Route, which includes a bit of gravel. Many of these scenes will likely look familiar to regular readers of my blog … only this time, they have several inches of snow. The roads were mostly clear-ish, but the gravel parts were quite snowy.

Aside from commuting, I haven’t done much riding in the past couple of weeks. I have been busy, and also a bit lazy. I’m also having some sort of foot issue that’s not keeping me off the bike entirely, but it is definitely making me tread more lightly and avoid longer rides. I’d like to do some hiking, but that’s definitely not an option until my foot gets better.

I did get out for about a 17-mile ride with Dave on Sunday. It was mostly on paved roads, but we hit a bit of gravel as well. There was more snow away from town, more than I expected. The paved roads were clear, but the gravel was snowy and icy, and just beautiful. I rode my new mountain bike, and I have to say, the 29er handles better on the roads than my old 26″ mountain bike. My tires made hilarious noises on the pavement, though, I sounded like a tractor rolling down the road. There was only one noteworthy photo from that ride; here it is.

And here’s a photo of the bike path from my commute, sometime last week. Here you can see that it snowed, people walked and rode on the snow, and the snow melted and refroze. The rough ice was bumpy, but otherwise no problem, with the studded tires on my commuter.

On Saturday afternoon, I headed out for a ride with only a vague idea of the route I wanted to do. I ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours riding gravel roads, trails, fire roads, and paved roads … and even a bit on a frozen lake. I took my new mountain bike on this ride and once again, it fared very well.

This was a drive and ride situation, I wasn’t sure how the roads would be, and this let me get to the area where I wanted to ride in time to actually do some riding there.

I parked the car on a paved section of road, but it immediately turned to gravel. The gravel parts had snow on them, compacted somewhat by cars, but fortunately not icy.

I reached a lake, and could see that some people had been out on its frozen surface, ice fishers and sledders, and some deer. I walked out a bit on the ice myself to check it out. Some holes had been made and you could see the ice was about four inches thick.

After testing the ice thickness, I went back and got my bike (visible in the photo below, by the shore). I wanted to ride on the ice a little.

I was headed across the lake, on the left side of the below photo. I considered trying to ride all the way across, but I wasn’t sure the ice was uniformly thick.

I got enough of a sense for riding on the ice to want to do more of it. It’s just something you have to be very cautious about. I stayed within the area where others had already been, and there were several holes where I could confirm that the ice was thick.

Making tracks on the lake

After that unique experience, I got back on the road. The route across the lake would’ve been a lot easier, but I just wasn’t sure about it.

After that, I had some more wonderful gravel riding.

I made it over to the area I noted above, directly across that part of the lake …

… and looked over at a ridge on the other side of the lake, which I would later climb up, and then ride down.

I rode on, and the scenery remained quite breathtaking.

I turned and rode on paved roads, briefly, which were relatively clear by comparison …

… before turning onto another gravel road. The sign said “No Outlet,” but that depends on your mode of travel, and your willingness to make your way through the woods on rough fire roads and horse trails. On my bicycle, and abundantly willing, I planned on riding through.

Around this time, my water bottles started to freeze. I had to bite down on the valve to crack the ice, and take frequent drinks to keep them from freezing shut.

The fire road/trail was just wonderful and, riding through the powdery snow was fairly easy, even if it was slick at times. Some places had footprints, but it was wide enough that I could make my own tracks off to the side. In addition to human footprints, I followed deer tracks literally for miles. Apparently, deer use trails, too! Later, I also encountered some ski tracks.

I stopped for another drink of water and noticed the sun was setting over a distant ridge.

At this point, I was almost finished. The trail spit me out onto a gravel road, in an odd rural neighborhood. I saw a very ramshackle house for sale,  with an RV parked near it.

I rode down the hill …

… and soon, I was back at my car. I have to say, this was the best ride I’ve done in some time. It was cold, and challenging, but it was also incredibly beautiful. Riding in the snow is an experience you can’t get any other way.