First Snow

Awoke to snow in the ground for the first time this season, and decided to go out and play in it a bit.

I stayed close to home, heading up the road a couple miles to Lone Elm Park, where I hit the gravel and grass trails for a few loops. With the temperature just under freezing, the roads were clear but wet, and the gravel trails were mostly clear, though the wooden bridges were snow-covered, and there were a few water puddles on the trail. The grass trails, however, were pretty well snowed in, and it was slow riding breaking trail through the fresh snow and 3-inch tall grass.

In all, I did 2.5 loops — two complete loops including both gravel and grass, each about 1.4 miles long, and one gravel-only loop of about 0.7 miles.

That and riding roads there-and-back got me about 8.5 miles. That was enough.

Clothing-wise, I’m still trying to work it out. Today, the problem was my feet. With a base layer cotton sock, a Seirus stormsock, and wool sock, in my Shimano MTB shoes, I ended up with cold toes. I’m thinking the stormsock (a windproof, water resistant layer) should have gone on the outer layer, providing more airspace within. The other problem is that my shoes are really too tight with all the sock layers, further limiting the insulating airspace.

Other than that, the Amfib tights were great on the legs, wool + polypro + rain jacket was actually too warm on the torso, and liner glove + fleece glove was great on the hands.

The other problem was glasses — I was using a fleece neck gaitor, which works fine keeping the neck and face comfy, but warm air rises and fogs the glasses. Never did really work that out, other than the lower the gaiter below my mouth.

Finally, my camera crapped out on me, or I’d have some nice photos. That thing is eating batteries like candy. Time for a new one, I suppose.

DirtBum Written by:

I enjoy riding bicycles all over -- city streets, suburbia, rural roads, gravel roads, dirt roads, rail-trails, and singletrack. I love exploring the countryside and finding the interesting and historical treasures hidden in plain sight. You can follow my rides on Strava.