Was the thought I had just before bouncing off the ground. OK, it was more of a thump and a slide. It was my first chance to ride the trail all the way to work. There was a beautiful dusting of falling powder gently blanketing the trails AND THE HUGE ICE FLOW. I wasn't thinking that I should snap a picture of my bike 30 feet down the trail as I sat there trying to determine if I was damaged. If I did grab a pic, and there was no snow, and I was on a different bike, and the bike ended uphill of me and not downhill of me...it would have looked like this.
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| Stock Photo |
Because that's the section of trail I was on. A 1/2 inch of powder over glare ice on a hill isn't good, especially when you don't even know the ice is there. When I realized that I was going down I did it as gracefully as possible. Which at about 10mph over a nearly frictionless surface is moderate at best. I don't think I
broke anything this time. Maybe a slightly bruised rib. Coincidentally (or not) it was almost in the exact same section of trail as my collarbone calamity. Maybe I should find a different route. Nah.
Otherwise the trails were OK but not great. The light snowmobile tracks were generally good for the fatbike until the snow just stopped supporting the front wheel and it would submarine under the snow and washout for no particular reason. I did have trails available all the way to the office door so that was nice. But hey, who built a house in the middle of the trail over the summer.
If you didn't have a good crash once in a while you wouldn't be human. Nice one! Most excellent that there were no broken bones. We're getting close to the fatbike race!
ReplyDelete"Stock Photo" haha. So what's the solution? Studs or slowing down?
ReplyDeleteKnowing it was there would have been a start. I had studs but they don't help if they can't reach through the snow to the ice. I think the answer yesterday would have been bypassing it. Today it had changed with the new snow frozen to the ice and was rideable, at least going down. Up can still be a problem because you just can't get enough traction to overcome gravity.
ReplyDelete