The Mukluk's first encounter with snow!

Last Sunday's snowbiking endeavor proved fruitful. It was fun, it was warm, the scenery was beautiful, and it was one heck of a workout! Decided to stay close to home, partly due to existing road conditions. It's pretty nice to have Tranquility trail less than three miles away! Temps remained in the upper 20s and this made for perfect snowbiking weather. The snow stayed on the trees and there was  fresh powder galore! It doesn't get any better than that!

Picture by Paul

Chris enjoying some fat. Soon...soon

Paul and I met up at Kelley field and later Chris would join us during our last few laps. It was pretty slow going, no time trial records would be broken that day! Our first lap was like biking through a long uphill battle. Our lungs and legs had yet to warm up and our bikes were just trying to push through the six inches of fluffy. We fell many times, but just laughed each time it would happen. Yes...we were having fun. Do a lap, rest. Do a lap, rest. We repeated this at least five or six times. Came out with just under 10 miles in 5 hours. Told you we weren't breaking any records!

For the most part, we stayed on the north side of Fort Street. Just kept making a short loop by the creek. It was plenty. After Chris joined us, we decided to do some exploring and found out that there were ATV tracks (from the night before) by the wetlands! If we would have known, we would have been riding that also!

Chris was tackling the ravines

How did the Salsa Mukluk perform? Amazing! I dropped the psi all the way down on the Larry and the Endomorph. You could basically grip the tire with your hand and give it a full squeeze. Pretty crazy. The bike just floated on the snow. Paul and Chris had aired down on their "skinnies" and I rode their bikes for a little bit while they hopped on the Muk. Totally different feeling! You just have to experience it to understand the feeling of riding a snowbike. It doesn't dig  for the trail. Instead it just floats and gets enough traction to keep you going.

Falling down:

This hump was very off camber. First three times over it I fell. Standing on it I fell. Was finally able to clear it.

The trip up

After the second or third laps, our lap speeds were improving. I wouldn't necessarily say that we were falling less. But getting around took less effort and the trails was getting to be more fun. The parts that kept tripping us up were the off camber stuff. And sometimes you would end up on the lip of the trail and it was just wipe you out.

Our first lap. Animal tracks ahead!

Picture within a picture. Also notice the large number of tracks that we made.

Another picture within a picture

The coolest thing of the ride was during our first lap, I had noticed that the bunnies and possibly the deer had made tracks before us. What surprised me was that the animals chose the exact same path on the trails as us! Even over the log crossings! It was as if the animals have been watching all of the riders and chose to mimick their every move on the trail. Yes, it was that intense!

I shot lots of video, using 2 of the 3 cameras that I had with me. I'm going to try to put together all of the videos into one big inaugural snow biking video. So pictures for now, video will come later. Some of it is choppy, the GoPro on the gorillapod on the Muk rak wasn't the best idea. At the time, it was fast and easy to setup. Especially with it being cold and Paul waiting for me.

Even the bunnies enjoy the log crossing

The tracks...

We'll be making more tracks next weekend at Tranquility. Get a hold of us if you wish to ride!

Strato's take on snowbiking