by Steve the Bike Guy organizes a fat bike ride each winter from his bike shop through the woods of Sherborn. Since the pandemic is still raging the organized ride was cancelled. But Steve published routes and encouraged everyone to go out and ride. So I rode.
Dave and I agreed on a Sunday morning ride and got Jeff, Vince and Mike to join us. Fat bikes for all.
The conditions were tough. There was plenty of snow cover. Unfortunately, the precipitation had turned to rain at the end of the last snow event in area. Then it froze. That left a thick, hard crust on top of several inches of soft snow. In some places you could ride on the surface of the crust. Then…CRACK! The crust breaks. The front wheel gets stuck by the crust and the rear wheel loses traction on the underlying soft snow. You stop suddenly. And likely, fall over.
Above, my bike is standing up on its own. The crust of the snow is strong enough to hold the bike upright.
Steve and Kristin had spent Wednesday stomping along the route in snowshoes to break up the crust. That made the route rideable. We had no chance of riding through untracked snow. In many places it felt more like we riding in a toy slot car track. Wheels would bounce off the hard crust just to one side or the other of the stomped-down path.
We managed to get through the short loop route that Steve and Kristin had stomped out. We took a few wrong turns. Really, we were choosing the path where the snow looked the best and less where the computer was telling us to turn. It was only three miles, but a lot of work. Probably the hardest three miles I’ve ridden. It was challenging, but the challenge is half the fun.
As a bonus, the snow began fall while we riding. Coating everything in white fluff.
It seems like we are entering a snow stretch so I’m looking forward to getting out on my fat bike for more rides.
