The Snow Came....On Christmas!

The snow finally came!  And on a special day, Christmas morning.  Christmas Eve was a brown Christmas Eve, then on the next morning when I woke up, there was 3-4 inches of snow on the ground.  I was pretty excited about it and since everybody didn't want to get up until 10 that morning to open presents, I decided to go ride my fat bike in the new, fresh snow.  I went up Kane Valley Road on the backside of Black Hill.  I was first tracks on the road and it was beautiful.

During Christmas break, I went on more rides on my fat bike and it was very exhilarating. The snow was perfect and the weather was beautiful but very cold.  On the ride Friday, it wasn't bad, but on Saturday's ride, it was 12 degrees when I started then it warmed up with the sun shining and the temperature got to 18 degrees.  After working out for 10 minutes, I warmed up fast.

Duke came with me on Saturday's ride in back of the foothills and he ran right by me the whole way and he enjoyed it, well, it seemed like it.  But he was very tired.  He ran 9 miles.

For Christmas this year, I received a very good item for snow biking, the 45 North Wolvhammers boots.  They are the best.  I really like them and they are very warm.  I can also put cleats on them so I can ride on clipless pedals.  It's so much better to ride clipless and I hope by spraying Pam onto the cleats and pedals(got the idea from somebody else), the snow and ice won't stick on them.  These shoes were very pricey for the elves to make and they don't make very much of these.  So I got really lucky from Santa.  I must have been very good this year!

Bucket List a Success!.....Kind Of

During last August, I had the rest of the year left of things to do, then on for another list for next year.  This time, instead of thinking it in my head about fun things to do, I actually got a paper and written a list, then typed it off the computer.  It went like this:

August
     San Rafael trip with the Tony and family

September
      Corner Canyon bike trails near Draper
      Climb up to Bluebell or Pioneer in Ephraim Canyon on bike
       Round Valley bike trails near Park City

October
       Moab bike trip
       The Wedge Overlook ride?
       Captitol Reef hiking

November
        St. George bike riding
         Take a break from biking(fall break)or take it easy

December
         Continue break
          Get back on the snow bike when it snows!

Well, I completed most of it and there were a few changes due to broken bike in November and just had a few change of plans.  So instead of the Bluebell or Pioneer climb I just did the Flume Trail and Black Hill area on one ride because I wasn't really ready for the Pioneer.  Then instead of Wedge Overlook, I did even a better thing like the 11 mile hike on top of Ephraim Canyon which was way cooler.  I had the question mark after Wedge Overlook because I kind of knew I wasn't in the mood for that.  And finally, instead of St. George bike riding, I did St. George hiking due to broken bike.  That was that one time I hiked up Angel's Landing and I actually enjoyed that more than I would going biking on that weekend.  It was a great trip.  So all the things I did on this list were posted in all the previous posts on this blog.

By taking the fall break, I actually started to ride my bike less and did cross training instead, this winter, I took up swimming.  I went 2 times a week at the local pool after work.  It felt great too, to be in the warm water and exercise mostly my whole body without too much impact.  I did backwards swim one time to the end of the pool then freestyle back, then backwards swim, then freestyle and just kept going for 35 minutes or so.  I still rode my bike on the weekends and a lot during Thanksgiving holidays.  Just whenever I am not at work and there is daylight outside.  It hasn't snowed yet here and it's almost Christmas.  It has in the mountains though and I am hoping we get some accumulation in the valley on Christmas Day like what they said it would so I could get back on my snow bike(fat bike with 5 inch tires).  There also need to be 24 inches of snow in the mountains for them to groom a few roads up in the mountains.  It's snowing in the mountains now but it is very slushy though.  Don't know what will happen this week.  Hoping for the good!