I managed to squeeze in some decent singletrack winter riding on my 29’er last week before the spring thaw hit. The trails were packed hard and the traction was amazing.
On Thursday afternoon, I rode everything at MORC’s Lebanon Hills MTB Park:
including my favorite rock in the skills park:
On Friday morning, I rode all of MORC’s Theodore Wirth Singletrack trails:
I made two short videos. This one includes the small gap jump in South Wirth section:
and this video features the difficult skinny:
It turns out that wet snow on wooden skinnies is really slippery. Who knew? 😉 I failed 20+ times trying to clean it without hopping. Lots of pedal ratcheting and rear brake modulation but still no cigar. So I finally cheated.
On Sunday, I accompanied my buddy and fellow geezer Bruce Morlan on his first-ever ride on a proper mountain bike (mine). We rode CROCT’s Sechler Park trail here in Northfield. He was doing so well that I took him on the more advanced Spine section where he promptly nicked a tree with his handlebars, tumbled down a steep slope, and then jumped up in a victory pose, his bruised ribs and skinned shin not withstanding. If he’s still smiling about the memorable experience by the end of the week, then I’ll say I did an excellent job as a ride leader. If not, I’ll be like, “Bruce who?”
Although I’d prefer a winter with way more snow, it wasn’t actually half-bad (I talk Minnesotan) for mountain biking, given that A) I don’t own a fat bike; and B) the groomed singletrack movement (#ridegroomed) has taken a solid hold here in the Upper Midwest.
