I wasn’t sure a Stub Stewart snow ride was going to happen this winter.  It has been a very  mild winter so far.  I was riding in knickers and thermal jersey two weekends ago.  However that all changed this weekend.  The temps were dropping and the rain has come in.  There has been a “winter weather advisory” for the valley since late Saturday afternoon too.  So today we woke up to a dusting of snow in the neighborhood.

I was prepared for potential disappointment on the drive out.  It was raining fairly hard heading out 26 and only started to spit large snowflakes around Buxton.  That all quickly changed as I turned up 47.  About 1 mile up the road it was snowing hard and the pavement was all snow covered.  The final 3 miles to the park entrance were driven at a more sedate 35mph versus the posted 55mph limit.  Our house sits about 230′ elevation and I believe the parking lot at the park is about 800-900′.

It probably goes without saying that it was not very crowded up there today.  No offense to my Oregon born friends but this is the type of weather that seems to keep them all cooped up inside.  I ran into one women just finishing up a short hike and then another family towards the end of my first loop who were also hiking.  Nobody else was biking today.

This snow was pretty wet.  Perfect snowman snow.  The trails varied from about 1/2″ of snow to close to 5″ in the more open areas.  Because of how wet the snow was it tended to stick to the bike, especially the wheels.  It is an odd feeling when you have to pedal downhill and you’re only going about 7mph.

I ended up doing two laps of a basic loop.  There are several closed areas, such as unfit settlement, due to continued winter logging in the park.  Since I was riding solo I skipped some of the more remote areas.  Maybe old age common sense is finally kicking in?

I really didn’t think we’d get snow this year.  Lucky for me we did and I got to take advantage of it.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete