White Is The New Dirt

On the "Marky-Mark" trail.

Saturday we got our first good dosage of snow. It didn't come until well into the afternoon, but I was not able to get away until then due to dog-sitting duties and other situations. Once I got freed up, I set out to go make some tracks.

Of course, having big, voluminous tires with crazy tread makes even this two inches or so of white fluff pretty much nothing. It isn't any different than riding on dirt. Kinda like "white dirt"! It wasn't until I went up the steep incline of the dike that I even noticed the tires working hard at all. Up until that point I could disregard that this was snow I was riding on. It was simply not challenging at all.

That isn't to say that I was not having fun, because I was. Ripping through the corners as fast as I wanted to go despite the conditions was cool. Hidden sand and branches don't affect the big tires either, so while I may have been upended on a skinnier tired bike, this seemed almost like cheating. If we get to a point where we have a deeper base and it has been walked upon, skied upon, and what not, that is where these behemoth tires will earn their keep. There and on the deeper snowed in trails and snowmobile tracks.

Black Hawk Creek is just starting to ice over.

I hadn't been out to "Marky-Mark" for a while, but I see someone with a chain saw came through and cleared it up. It doesn't have any logs to test your bunny hopping skills on anymore nor is it closed in upon you in that section between the ponds. Gee.......its almost as if it were a legit trail now. Next thing ya know the City will run that stupid end loader through there, straighten out all the corners, and turn it into a path for the elderly.

Anyway, for now it seems okay, and obviously, it is easily found and you can clear it without fuss. I don't mean to come off as "unthankful", because it was a good deed, but ya never know where that might lead if ya don't know who has taken on the job of trail custodian. If it is the City, well....... I'm not confident things will stay as fun as they are now. Let's just leave it at that.

It isn't like I own that trail or anything. It is Public land, after all, and I have no say. Just like I stated a while back when speaking of this trail- I truly am amazed any of it is still there after all these years.  In fact, there used to be an extension of Marky-Mark that went Eastward past the original trail and came out by the lake. It was a much longer trail and in the middle it was susceptible to flooding. I had a laugh Saturday when I came out of Marky-Mark because you cannot even make anything out of that former trail now, whereas Marky-Mark thrives in comparison.

It was snowing pretty good by the time I got home and had the lights on. The trails will be beaten in by traffic by now, but it was fun to be out while it was snowing when the single track looked like a white line instead of like dirt. That doesn't happen often around here. It may not last either, as not only the traffic but warmer weather is supposed to arrive in about a week. We'll see........ For now it is going to feel like a walk in freezer out there!