45 & Icy

After being stuck in the doom and gloom of the Polar Vortex, we thought we would be in heaven on Saturday with the forecast showing temps reaching the mid 40 degree range if not a tad higher. However in reality all that moisture from the snow made it not quite as nice as we had hoped and it created a pretty dense layer of fog at times. Overcast skies kept the underlying ice frozen with just a thin layer of water over the top of it, we definitely had to be on our toes on Saturday as it was hard to tell water from water over ice at times until you were right on top of it.




Just when we thought that the trails couldn't get any worse, we met the MoPac. Without any maintenance or clearing at all, the surface of the trail was covered in a good 2-3" of slush combined with the occasional ice patch for good measure making the going slow and walking often the best mode of forward movement.



Having had enough of the slop and the mile long walk, we detoured at Hillcrest and opted for A Street's pavement over the slush the rest of the way to Walton.




Luckily the gravel was mostly good, north/south roads were in better shape than the often shaded east/west roads but both of them were better than what we had encountered so far. The original plan was to head to Unadilla and see the Unadilla Bill festivities but with all the delays we opted to just ride some gravel in a loop and head back in for a bit of a shorter ride.





The fog out there was kind of crazy, if you were one of those Flat Earthers you might think that at any moment you might fall off the edge since you couldn't see anything farther than about a half a mile or most of the ride. Thankfully the planet is not flat and nobody actually fell off of the edge.


Our first fog beer was a tasty Mexican chocolate Stout, nothing like a cold beer on a chilly day.





Once back in town, it was time to warm up and refuel. Honest Abe's and then Rock'n'Joe on Glynoaks Drive fit the bill to a T. First time we'd been to Rock'n'Joe but it probably won't be the last, they had a little bit of everything even if you aren't a big fan of coffee they have other beverages that might be more up your alley and they even have sandwiches and salads. Nice cozy space to just sit and chat with friends too.



The ride back to Cycle Works was more ice, ice fishing and ice biking; thankfully Phil and Bill did not see their shadows so hopefully the snow and ice is almost out of here for this winter.


While winter's days might be numbered this year, it will be back next year and on top of that the single track should be good here in a month or two and what better way to crush that than on a new Giant Yukon Fat Bike. Two models available and right now you also get $100 gift card with purchase, what are  you waiting for?