Springtime Muddin'

With the snow fast on the way out and the sun shining brightly, I decided it was high time for some springtime muddin'. I got in a Bontrager Mud X 29"er tire, slapped it on the rear end of the Sawyer, and headed out the door.

I was definitely over-dressed, and before too long I was shedding my outer coat and gloves to stay cool.

<==I'm as happy as this alien to be riding without a coat again!

I headed down to The Green Belt to ride, since those trails are unaffected by early season mud riding. In fact, the next time it rains my tracks will be all gone. The old Blackhawk Creek overflows the Green Belt so often that you'd be hard pressed to cause anything that could be construed as trail damage on a bicycle.

So, it is the perfect place to test tires in the mud for performance and there is plenty of sticky, gooey river bottom mud to play in there.

Besides the tire testing I was just enjoying the fact that I was riding on a sunny day without having to be bundled up. In fact, all I had on for most of the ride was a long-sleeved jersey. Gloves? pssshaw! Too warm for that too. It was definitely the first ride like that since last November.

Amazingly, there was little snow left in the woods. In fact, if we could stay dry for a week, the trails would be bone dry and hard. Right now the frost is oozing out, so that is why the mud is so easy to find at this point. Normally it doesn't stay muddy for all that long out there.

The mud was thick and gooey, so I stuck to a steady, slowish pace to keep the flying clods at bay. It was a great resistance workout, that's for sure!

By the time I made it over to the lake cut-off trail,my front tire had turned into a mud version of an Endomorph 3.8"er. I had to head over towards the lake, out of all the mud, and clean up a bit. Then I headed around the lake where I ran into the only patches of snow left on the trail. Probably won't see that again until next December.

I figured that was enough mud testing, so I headed out for a longer bike path ride, just because it was too nice to go back home. Welcome spring, and the mud, and everything else that comes with it. It's been a long time since we've seen you around these parts!

Hope you are getting out for some early springtime riding too.