The Soul Sucking Lake

I rode home in a blizzard last night.  There were a few inches on the trails already and the going was tough so like a good fatbiker, I dropped my tire pressure to somewhere around 2psi and the going was tough but pretty doable.  It was snowing at a rate of a few inches/hour.   

It the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a blizzard.  It was actually pretty fun.

By the time I got to the lake, the soul sucking lake, there were 4-5” on the ground and the going was getting harder.  The ride across the lake started out fine  I wasn't out on it more that 50' before I lost all visual clues of where I was.  My lights reflecting off the snow were brighter than any lights on shore and I could only see about 10' ahead.  

It Looked A Lot Like This

 Luckily, I'm pretty familiar with the lake so it was more interesting than worrying.  Once on the main bay the wind had picked up, the snow had blown in drifts and any indications of where the snow had been packed had vanished.  Soul sucking started.  After about 3/4 mile of trudging I got to a point where I could either trudge a short distance more toward the road or ride again on the lake for 1/2 mile toward the trail. I chose hard riding over more trudging.  When I got to the trails the snow had piled up more and any upgrade became impossible.  So more trudging.  My knees hurt, I was feeling sick, my goggles were fogging up and I was tired and getting grumpy.  I could go on...  I had thoughts like "If this were my only experience with biking, I wouldn't do it."

My whole commute through the trails takes 45min on a good day.  This day I got to the far shore of the lake in 45min, not bad.  I got home in 2:15, bad.  Normally, the trip across the lake and then home is only about 25% of the ride.  I'm going to take a day or 2 off from riding.