Boise Fat Biking: Awesome to Treacherous to Awesome

Thursday, January 24^th was supposed to be a drive day for me as I traveled to St George, UT for Camp Lynda 6.0 but Mother Nature had other ideas.  Freezing rain fell in the early morning hours and left most of Boise covered in a layer of ice which prompted me to pour myself another cup of coffee and check the Idaho road reports…I am glad I checked.  My route, I-84 Eastbound, was closed at 7:00am and would remain closed for most of the day due to ice and crashes.  The Facebook chatter on the Camp Lynda 6.0 page indicated that many of the Salt Lake City roads were in similar shape so I pulled the plug on my trip. 

My change of weekend plans would have been a little easier to swallow if the fat biking conditions had remained good.  As a result of the freezing rain storm, the Boise Foothills trails went from “snow-covered ribbons of fat biking greatness” to “treacherous” in one night. Fuck!

Kenai and I shuffled down to Camel’s Back Park Saturday morning to see if there was any chance of riding.  Let’s just say that walking to and from the park was an adventure so riding outside was not an option on Saturday.

Ice! We had to walk on the soft edge of the trail to take this pic. 

By Sunday I was REALLY ready to ride outside again.  Warmer temps Saturday afternoon softened the icy trails and we got a little dusting of snow and colder temps overnight.  This left the trails in a chunky, re-frozen state with just enough traction to try and ride.  Yeah for no trainer on Sunday!

And then it snowed Monday night.  I didn’t wake up Tuesday thinking about "powder" skiing the sick-gnar 3.5" of snow that Bogus Basin received.  I woke up thinking about how sweet the trails would be with a layer of fresh snow on top of a frozen base and that I better “git sum” before it warmed up.  So I did.  And it was awesome.

Winter made a comeback Monday night

The trails were quiet and the snow was fluffy early Tuesday morning

Hulls Gulch

Fresh tracks on Red Cliffs. Greatness.