We’re in the middle of winter again. While we’ve had a blast ripping up the slopes on our snowboards and skis, for most of us nothing will replace the feeling of killing it on two wheels. I was keeping an eye on the weather forecast and low and behold, it looked as if temperatures were going to top out in the low 50’s in the Wilsons area. Immediately I called up the crew to plan a ride.
Of course I got the usual round of comments like “Do you really think it’s not going to be muddy as all hell?” and “The high is 52, it will still be 35 when we start riding.” I put all of these concerns to rest and promised my compadres that I had carefully checked the forecast and that we were looking at a nice warm day of riding in prime conditions. I also promised that since we haven’t ridden in a while we would take it easy on the uphill and work a shuttle or two. I was full of s#!t. I just wanted everyone to come out and ride.
Only Steve-O and C-Los took the bait this time. We met up at the dirt mounds and headed up the mountain toward Raspberry Ridge. I tried to act surprised when the gate to set up the shuttle was locked. As we ascended the temperature dropped as predicted and clear roads turned to snow and ice covered paths. We unloaded our gear and got ready to drop into Raspberry for a chilly ride. Surprisingly the upper part of the trail was a blast. The snow was granular and lent itself well to certain degree of drift in the corners. It was packed in deep between the rocks and roots and actually smoothed out as few sections of the trail nicely. As we descended things got just a tad warmer and all of that nice frozen ground turned to six inch deep mud. Mud so thick that we had to walk because we couldn’t even pedal our bikes. After a brief hike-a-bike we regrouped and picked our way down the water filled last half of the trail. During the summer the fire road out of Raspberry is usually hard packed and in good shape. Today the endless weeks of a relentless freeze/thaw cycle had turned the road into a path of wet sand around two inches deep. It literally felt like we were pedaling through wet concrete. I expected a couple “What the hell did you get me into?” looks but at the top of the climb the fellas we in a surprisingly good mood. The temperature had gotten warmer, the sun was out, and by the time we rolled down Highway 181 to the start of Headley things looked as if they were in good shape. Lucky for us they were in great shape. The trail was dry and fast and we got our first taste of killing some downhill in a long time. By the end of carving turns, rock gardens, and jumping our way down the trail we knew we had to load up a shuttle for another rip down Headley. The second time was just as good as the first and when it was all said and done we were beat. What started out as a sketchy outing turned into winter riding at its best and a great preview of the ripping that lies ahead this season!