Snowy Middle Merrill Ride

[MTBMaven]

[FONT=Verdana]My biking plans got all messed up last weekend so all I got in was a hike on Saturday. I saw some photos of people biking to [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Inspiration Point on Sunday and it was killing me. I didn't want to pass up the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]opportunity to ride in the snow again this winter, so I called in sick at work. (What better way to burn up my roughly 200 hours of sick time than by using 9 of them to go riding?)

I was surprised at the number of people I say out there on a Monday. I played leap frog with another Yeti rider. Saw several hikers as well, one guy showed up at Inspiration Point wearing Tevas [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]ith short shocks. Interesting to say the least seeing as he was hiking in 3-4 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]inches of snow. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]

The snow riding started about a half mile from where the pavement turns to dirt on the way up Chaney Trail/Mt. Lowe Rd. Shortly after the snow started I saw animal tracks that freaked me out. They were big and I saw claws and I was alone. I kept riding and began to realize a pattern, the prints were in lock step with boot tracks. I deduced that the prints were dog and not lion. (I really need to learn what cat tracks look like. Cat tracks don't have claw prints as they retract their claws right?)

Riding Middle Merrill in the snow was awesome. Plenty of grip with the right about of slip. I cleared almost all of the little rock[/FONT][FONT=Verdana][FONT=Verdana] o[/FONT]utcroppings[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] along the first rolling section of the trail. The trail was completely covered with snow and only larger rock [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]out croppings[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] remained an[FONT=Verdana]d[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana] poked through. The trail started to show through once I rounded the corner getting to the south facing side of the mountain. Still little patches the snow fest continued. The rest of the ride was great with tons of traction. No loose gravely trail that is [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]usual for Middle Merrill. My gloves had gotten supper wet from wiping sweat from my brow on the ride up, which turned my hands to frozen pop sickles on the way down. I had to keep stopping to hard my hands as my hands were so numb I couldn't feel the bars.

I didn't take too many photos but enjoy the ones I did take. In the third photo it appears someone decided to do a little tree biking and erosion implementation.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[cow]

Originally Posted by MTBMaven

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The snow riding started about a half mile from where the pavement turns to dirt on the way up Chaney Trail/Mt. Lowe Rd. Shortly after the snow started I saw animal tracks that freaked me out. They were big and I saw claws and I was alone. I kept riding and began to realize a pattern, the prints were in lock step with boot tracks. I deduced that the prints were dog and not lion. (I really need to learn what cat tracks look like. Cat tracks don't have claw prints as they retract their claws right?)[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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Yep, cat tracks do not display claws, as they walk with them retracted. dogs (and coyotes, of course) have claws in their tracks.

Cool pictures (no pun intended ), looked like a fun ride.


-Mike

[dirttorpeedo]

its great to have a job thats got sick pay, just about anytime ,its sick time great pix man cough cough