I woke up this morning around 6:30am. Being so ritualistic I promply grabbed my iPad and opened up Twitter to see what was going on in my little world. I saw a few remarks on the weather from some people and eventually warnings by the Edmonton Journal not to go outside yelling at me there is a wind chill around -40.
I stayed in bed till 10.
Once I got out of bed it hit me hard. My strong desire to ride. Off I went after breakfast.
I had two pairs of wool socks, two pairs of tights with my cold weather winbreaker pants over top, three layers of long sleeves and my windbreaker. The weather wasn't going to stop me today.
The ride was still tough, the cold did not get to me thanks to my pre ride dressing. I even had two locked river valley bathrooms for warming up impede my progress keeping me out in the cold that much longer.
I don't think I went over twelve km's but it was more than enough given the bitter cold. It seemed like every pedal stroke took a bit more out of me as my bike slowly pushed along on top of the brutal artic trail conditions.
I had a few amazing moments which made the ride worth all the pain, those moments happened on singletrack that was good enough to be ridden. My old Winter bike would have never made it through which scores the fat bike with another giant win. Riding those trails today with all the Winter splendor in the harsh conditions was really quite incredible.
Mountain bikes. I love you.
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