Big Ride in the Big Holes

I met up with Scott Fitzgerald and Chris Erickson on Saturday for another exploratory ride in the Big Holes on the snowmobile trail network. Scott is the owner the best bike shop in the universe and Chris is the Brewmeister for Snake River Brewery which is conveniently located next store to Fitzgerald’s Bicycles in Jackson.

We didn’t really set out to do a big ride but once we got moving and found the trail conditions to be good we decided to try for the lollypop loop we had been eye-balling on the map. “Big” is relative this time of year. 20 mile mountain bike rides are not big in the summer but on the snow, with lots of climbing, I think they qualify as big. We were out for about 4 ½ hours.

We need to come up with a name for the route we did Saturday because it will definitely make the hit list. It has rolling terrain in the beginning, a long, grinding climb in the middle, a 3.8 mile twisting, fast-as-you-ever-want-to-go-on-snow descent, and then a bit more rolling terrain back to the truck for a total of 21 miles. Scott put on a display of mad downhill skills on every descent and Chris set the pace on the climbs and rode everything. I am continually amazed at what the Endomorph tires stick to. Even in the middle of the day, on a Saturday, we saw only a handful of snowmobiles and everyone was cool.

Riding for 4 ½ hours in Feb rocks! There is no way I would ever ride the trainer for more than 2 hours at stretch so I feel like I am getting a head start on the season and it feels good. I may be the only KTR racer to log all of my outside miles on the snow bike prior to the race depending on the winter we have.

On the gear testing front, I wore my new RBH Designs VprThrm socks for the first time and I had happy feet. My feet were damp inside the socks but never got cold and the moisture never seeped out into my insulating layers. I need to test them in really cold temps though but so far they are promising. Wind was big factor on Saturday's ride and once we crested the big climb we were exposed to 15-20mph winds and I immediately got cold hands and a cold head because I was sweaty. Once my hands get cold it takes me a while to get them warm again without using a chemical hand warmer.