When that prognosticating marmot forebode six more weeks of winter, I was personally hoping that he was full of feculence. Unfortunately the last few weeks have shown that maybe the little woodchuck was wise to the weather coming our way. Because of the shit-tastic cycle of weather lately I had not been down to Lincoln for the Saturday Morning No Drop Fat Bike Ride in a month of Saturdays but yesterday looked to be the best weekend we've seen recently so once again the ride was on as scheduled.
Temps were supposed to be just below freezing for most of the morning with a chance of getting to freezing by later afternoon. All of that sounds fantastic unless you have several inches of snow still remaining on the ground from the deep freeze we've been in as of late. It normally would have felt pretty nice after the down right nasty cold temps of the past week and a half but what we did not foresee was the freezing fog that was caused by all the moisture in the air. The face, eyes and beard were not impressed with the chillness of this mist and it's tiny needles on the exposed skin.
It was thick as pea soup, cold pea soup. Anyone see where we put that nearly 400' tall capitol building, I swear it was right down there yesterday.
If you head down to Wilderness via the Jamaica North trail watch out for the redirected power lines, they'd leave a heck of a hickey on your neck if you rode through there fast in poor visibility or at night and missed the unmarked reroute.
This might be the first time I've ever seen anyone plow the levee trail also, so wouldn't you know when they do for the power lines they go and push all the snow right in front of the entrance to the trails. I mean it's not like they had a half a mile's worth of trail that they could have pushed the snow off the side of that wouldn't have impeded anyone at all.
The trails in the park were fantastic, there has been so much snow and it's remained cold which has enabled the path to really get worn in. Balance was key though because if you let your wheel drift off either side of the 6-8" ribbon of packed snow it got soft and deep really quick. Several snow angels were made on Saturday by the crew but for the most part it was really zippy in there and almost as fast flowing as it is in the height of summer.
Ran into, or nearly ran into, these hooligans coming the opposite direction. Reports were that the track was good all the way out to danger bridge.
Stopped at the un-danger bridge for a beverage refueling stop, the one good thing about colder weather is that you don't have to worry about the barley pop getting too warm on you. Freezing up and spontaneously exploding in your bag, perhaps, but too warm is not an issue.
Not even Charlotte and her web were safe from
The Fog on Saturday morning.
I left our band of travelers in search of a place to write my name in the snow and came upon two trails that diverged near a yellowed snowman, not long I stood because I had to pee. I asked the attendant which way most had gone, north he pointed without uttering a word. I looked down the way he pointed to where the tracks disappeared, then took the one headed south. Two trails diverged near a yellowed snowman and I- I took the one less travel by and it made all the snow seem white and clean.
By the time we left Robert the yellowed snowman, the frost had burned off and the sun shown down upon us.
Further down the path more of Robert kind shepherded us toward the bridge of danger that we sought. And when we arrived at our destination, under it we hid like trolls and basked in the noon day sun.
Here under the bridge we crossed paths with a Craig-less Ed and Joel again, they were on their 3rd lap of the park.
Our group decided we had had enough of the snowy goodness for one day and headed toward higher ground and the paved paths back into the heart of the city.
Saro has kind of become our normal stopping spot since the closing of the coffee and beer portion of Method and so it was no surprise that we found ourselves there again on Saturday enjoying a hot or cold beverage. Thus bringing the ride to it's conclusion for another Saturday.
The Mo Java owned Filling Station was slated to open this month and progress has definitely been made but it didn't look like it was going to make it's projected date. I reached out to Mo Java and they confirmed that they don't plan on being opened now until mid to late April but in addition to coffee they are also bringing their food menu to the new spot as well with a few additional items not yet available at the original Mo Java cafe. Super excited for that and all the development along the N Street bike way. If you build it, we will come.
Silly me, I almost forgot to write anything about this weeks dish and it was a delicious one. Probably not the most healthy thing out there and you definitely don't want to eat it every week but once and awhile won't kill you. This week was Southern Baked Mac and Cheese, I substituted pepper jack for Monterey jack and added bacon and jalapenos but other than that it was to recipe. I think baking it in the cast iron skillet really added that extra something.
