Paul and I have been riding packed snowy trails with our mountain bikes the past 2 or 3 winters. This winter I have a long-term loan of a fat tire bike. I wanted Paul to experience a 'snow bike' so I bought him a rental of one for Christmas. Yesterday we cashed in the gift certificate and loaded the Salsa Mukluks into the truck.
A week or so ago someone had mentioned that the new singletrack trails at Kincaid were in great riding condition. We hadn't had any snow all week so I thought it would be fun to take a new bike on a new trail. At the bike shop they said that parts of the trail were 'soft' and 'challenging' but they thought the parts that we would ride had seen regular use.
I won't go into the blow-by-blow of our ride. Let's just say that I was reminded of a phrase I heard when I first started mountain biking. If you aren't walking, you aren't mountain biking. Yesterday that became If you aren't pushing a fat bike, you aren't snow biking. The softest area was the farthest from the parking lot so as we completed the loop and headed back to the trailhead, the riding got better and better.
In the end, we rode a beautiful network of trails on a beautiful winter day. My snow biking skills improved and we got a great workout. Paul may not be ready to buy a snowbike but I'm ready to take the mukluk out again and see if I can make some of those hills that I couldn't before.
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