It was a night and day difference in trail conditions between yesterday and today and it was evident early on on this one when a visit to the high trails in Mill Creek proved how great things were. It was like Winter bike Heaven today. Yesterday when we passed through pushing our bikes up the soupy unpacked hills on that trail it was Winter bike riding hell.
Not all was great on mine and Jason's return visit to Edmonton's Holiest of Holies aka. The Edmonton River Valley. The original plan was to head West and do a shortened version of yesterdays incredible ride. With the incredible shape of Mill Creeks trails I wanted to head East and try all that sexy singletrack that blossomed onto our river valley in the last few years. Jason agreed quickly.
All was good with the exception of Caddyshack, a trail that I see not getting much traffic all due to the bad ass image it puts up. The steep climbs that trail features were not done successfully as they were loose as shit. When we entered Happy Ending, Rolling Below Roland, Andre's Trail, or whatever the hell you want to call it. I'll go with Andre's as legend has it. This is the man's creation. Both me and Jason were in awe of how awesome the trail was today. If not today, any other day you roll over it. This trail has the perfect mix of everything and has that magical power of making you feel as though you are extremely remote in a magical mountain bike film accompanied with everything you need for awesome riding conditions. Summer or Winter.
Lunch was had at Gold Bar Park ski lodge and we came back, crossing the Capilano bridge and we hit the hills in upper Dawson park where things were rough. The trails were predominantly heavy foot traffic making the riding rough and choppy. A cartoon thought bubble over my head would have read "this is great and all, but Lordy, Lordy. I miss Summer right now!" as my hands rattled on top of my handlebars.
Those thoughts were quickly put to rest as we rode a trail not well travelled by hikers or bikes. The fat bikes rode through the rough deep snow like Champions. Thoughts of being on a regular bike was dismayed quickly. "How could one ride this on a normal bike. Fack! These bikes are awesome!" I thought right before we came upon a hill causing a rapid dismount and walk up.
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| the bikes were separated quickly as it looked like things may become 'romantically heated' given the view |
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| hermaphrodite snowmen, keep it classy edmonton |
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| potty break photo, sore legs and squashed souls, it was hometime. |
