Sebago Lake Adventure Dreams Vs Reality

It's been cold.  A few mornings around -20F degrees followed by extended cold.  A chance in a lifetime to ride around Sebago Lake.  Every view from my end of the lake looked like the entire thing had frozen early in the season.  The orinital plan was to skate the whole lake but a quick check of the ice showed that it was NOT good skating ice.  But it was perfect for ice biking.

Plans Were Made: Dreams

My friend and I started out and got to the point where we would pass between Frye Island and the mainland. 

Ready to ride the whole lake!

The ice in "The Gut" was a little questionable so we headed to the island shore to scope it out.  There's some current in this section so thin ice is expected.  Well, we got 1/2 mile down shore and found that the ice wasn't thin, it was it was missing.

Very Wet Ice

So we rode around the island in search of where the ice started again.  

Not Yet

This was my first time on Frye Island.  Mentally I guess I knew it but it was odd to be out there on an island with hundreds of houses that were all empty for the season.  It was easy to see that the ferry wasn't running. 

I guess they could trailer it across.

The island was quite a bit bigger than I expected.  We got about 1/2 way around and found the ice.  We could see from the map that the marina was just up ahead and would be a good place to get back on the lake.  From here we made it to the farthest point on the lake we could reach. Just in time for my friend to relax.

Just Resting

And warm up his feet.

Yes those are his mittens.

The south end of the lake was like Disney World with 100s of ice shacks, snowmobiles and people everywhere.  (I should have taken a picture of this)  We had planned the route so the last 10 miles were all downwind which was good since this would be the longest bike ride that my friend had ever done.

Reality

Even if it wasn't the ultimate goal it was still an excellent day on the lake.  Who knows, there are still 2 months of winter left.  It's possible that we may get that skate in yet.

It did make a good ride to Relive.  Relive Sebago Adventure

Moose Brook Fatbike Run 2018

Temperatures forecast above freezing for a full 24 hours before the race.  What could possibly go wrong?

I have already decided to crash at the bottom of this hill.

I have seriously got to get more aggressive for the start of these.  I watched the starting video and I was 4th from last.  I was regretting that for the first walking parade on the singletrack.  When ONE person lost momentum and walked EVERYBODY had to stop and walk.  Even on sections that could be ridden it wasn't hard for somebody to plow off course and stop the flow. I'd say the course conditions were:

• 30% Fantastic
• 30% Decent
• 30% Rideable
• 10% Walking

Firm enough to ride..."That's what she said"

Slightly Squishy

I did manage one slow motion OTB crash and a bunch of mishaps.  My legs are banged and bruised from bashing them with the peddles in the running section.  The worst part was when you had to put your foot down and the snow to the side of the trail gave way allowing you to tip over.  Stand-over height on a bike don't mean nuthin' in 2' of snow.

That's me down on the left with my head in the snow.  I let all these guys by and had to pass them again.

I think my commuter skills really kicked in.  Since I prefer to take bike over a car whenever I can, I am use to riding in less-than-ideal conditions.  I managed to squeak out 19th place out of 58 which is an improvement over my usual middle of the pack.  Racers were out there from just over 1 hour for the fastest rider to over 3 hours for the less skilled, WOW!

This shows the "mashed potatoes" condition that a lot of the trails were in.

It looked kind of like this but with snow. Relive Moose Brook Fatbike Run

The breakfast, food and beer were wonderful as always.  This is a great race. Thanks to SonLight Photography for capturing it.  All photos in this post were taken by SonLight Photography and used with permission. Check out all the race day photos here:  Moose Brook Fatbike Photos 2018

I'm starting a petition to Mother Nature for 2' of snow, followed by a 2 day warm spell for packing, followed by 4" of snow for grooming 3 days before the race followed by a 28 degree and cloudy race day with no wind.