Snow Fun Part II

This week has been odd.  Heather has been at work, Cailan at his normal schedule at Little Mavs, and I have been theoretically preparing for my classes which start the 18th.  The trouble is that there is not much to do for me to prepare.  Fortunately, we had a bit of a break in the unrelenting cold, so I dusted off the Chumba and took Utah out for a snow ride!  It sounds like great fun (and it is!) but snow riding is really pretty hard work.  Out here you have to ride early while everything is still very cold and frozen.  If you wait until the afternoon things get really wet and sloppy.

  The trail is packed snow and is very rough and bumpy, but if you go off the 18" wide packed trail, you find yourself in soft, energy-sucking snow.  None of this bothers Utah, who loves to run and thrash through any of it.

I managed to do about 10 miles before it started getting wet and sticky.  The trail is one that Heather and I do after work sometimes: Rustlers Loop.  It was quite different in the snow, the sharp contrast between the red rocks and white snow was amazing.  Even though it was slow it felt great to get out on a bike!