short and snowy but sweet

It was a short ride today. I didn't have a lot of time, but that was ok. 17 degree weather doesn't get me particularly motivated to be out for hours. It was snowing a good bit when I headed out for my ride today at 9am.

I rolled thru Meadow Park. Parks and rec had plowed the bike path enough that it had been packed down from several thaw/freeze cycles. It was perfect with just a couple inches of fresh snow on top. I said hi to Bill V and stopped to talk with him. He was shovelling off the skating rink for some skating later in the day. Talked for a bit, then rode off on my snowy SS tour de Lyons. I rolled out to Old South, then up Red Gulch. The climb wasn't easy. Not only does the road get amazingly steep, but the 2" of slick fresh snow made it impossible for the rear end to hook up efficiently. As I climbed the dirt road, a Boulder County Parks Ranger was heading back down the hill, no doubt after patrolling the border of Heil Ranch at the dead ends in the neighborhood. It's legal foot access from July -Jan, but there are signs everywhere about no bikes. I heed them. I kept climbing and made it up to the first right hand switchback after Jasper before I deemed myself to tired to soldier on with the ss in the snow. I turned around to enjoy the snowy descent back to Old South.
I made it to the last right hand switchback going down and guess who was parked in the pull off - the BoCo ranger. I suspected he was going to wait there for long enough for me to get into Heil, where he could approach me for poaching the park. Not me occiffer! Especially at this point, we have too much riding on the legit bike connection to Heil, which seems to be proceeding about the pace of a glacier.

So I got to thinking on the ride today, thinking about the good things the snow brings and will bring. First off, whenever the snow does finally melt and the trails dry out, they will be in better shape than ever. I expect that the singletrack at Hall will have time to rejuvinate. It really gets beat up in the winter over the snow and freeze cycles when folks ride thru and around the mud up there. I imagine the trails out of Camp Dick will be a little less sandy, too. Wonder when we'll be able to ride up there - late June? The boaters are going to love this Spring, too. With all the snow up in the hills, the runoff is going to be huge this year.

That's all for now. Keep on slipping and sliding in the white stuff. We'll be better off down the road because of it.