Snow Plowed...

The excitement of a half day spent riding bikes at Landahl was overwhelming. The recent 6" of snow had dampened my riding schedule, and I am not one who rides a stationary bike indoors, no sir. Sunday, it was going to be awesome!

Gunnar; Fixed w/ Mary Bars

I figured the Fixie was the bike to take, as the snow capabilities are greatly improved when you are so in tune with your bike. Of course the Gunnar was in a hundred pieces and I had to do a quick 15 minute build (at 6:30 a.m.) to get her ride-ready. This is to be my first experience trying 'Mary Bars' and I think the ergonomics of these sucka's is going to be a good thing.

A small devoted crew of Ethos freaks met at the Argo trail head at 8:00 sharp with a temperature of 18 degrees. It was a bit nippy to say the least. We suited up for what was planned to be four hours of riding the crap out of Landahls excellent trail system.

Burnsey, G-Wiz, Wilson & The Manimal

About 20 feet into the ride the realization that this was going to really suck-ass set in hard. The snow was deep, there were no other bicycles tracks but there were a ton of footprints from hikers. When you mix dry fluffy snow with hard packed, frozen footprints, you get this strange surface that is much like dried mud after horses had been through, plus this slicker-than-snot snow aspect. It was mega-slow going, and you sure the hell had to earn every peddle stroke.

I can't say that I successfully rode any obstacle, any hill or anything else. I was dab-nastic. I was pitiful; a real looser. I have not had to 'dig this deep' since Leadville. Holy crap the ride was exhausting. We sent approx. 6 miles of trail in...drum roll please...2 hours. Now that's flying.

The good; I got to ride with my best pals, had a fun time hanging out in the woods, and those Mary Bars were sweet!

Dear baby Jesus, make the snow melt and the trails dry. Amen.