#30daysofbiking -- part 2

things in my life often sit around unfinished. the kitchen table is piled with stuff, including all of last year's ticks, taped to sheets of paper, labeled with all the pertinent info, in an addressed envelope, waiting for...i don't know what, maybe this year's crop already started. queues in both my blogs--ttyol and goap!--are the cyber equivalent of the kitchen table. #30daysofbiking finished almost two weeks ago, but...ok, here's part 2.

days sixteen was definitely snowy! the riding was pretty much insane. i loved it!

day seventeen was almost pleasant temperature wise. the snow on top of the leaves higher up in the hills made for a sliding paradise rolling down hill. 

day eighteen, sunday, was a hiking/biking day up moose mtn to look back at town hill and spot the flag. trouble was, you couldn't see diddly and the trail was wicked wet!

day twenty one, you can see the snow and wet in the driveway over my shoulder. it was a wild day to be out riding. huge, sharp cracks of thunder seemed to shake me. since i rarely saw the lightening, they were often surprising.

day twenty two, there are a couple of downhill sections on the commute into work that quickly let me know how cold riding a bike in april can be--especially in the morning. somehow i always feel warmer coming home even when the temp hasn't changed all that much.

day twenty three, a short day at work got me out early, yeah, it was in the low twenties. the water in the bike bottle was solid.

later that same day it warmed enough to shed my winter jackets and take off for a good long~ish ride. i stopped a couple times to pick up some 'big' ticket trash items. question, who tosses out two microwaves into a ditch?

day twenty four, saturday: went up firescrew--the northern approach to cardigan--avoiding the weekend crowd and doing some spring trail maintenance. the logging road up to the mowgli trailhead was recently fixed up and makes for a fast mile and a half descent! before bombing down, i found this tiny reflection pool.

day twenty five, sunday: another weekend and the wind not too strong, so back up the pine with some 'new' flagging. 

all in all april was a grand month to get #30daysofbiking in. i haven't stopped now that it's may. thursday and friday, 6th and 7th, i got in a wonderful ride over to maine to see kevin and mariel and then up to evans notch to help open the amc cold river camp. i tried a new route that cut down 115 miles to 82 for that first 'long day'. the only problem was every back road i took, had 'hill' in its name!

life on the saddle has been / is good. and now that this post is finished, i can go outside and play!

#30daysofbiking -- part 1

 this is my third year riding every day in the month of april. and like the third child in the family's photo album--there aren't as many pictures this time. some of the pictures will also be cropped weird as they are twitter screenshots. (bonus: pre april, i got in a bunch of rides. march was warm~ish and really dry. it seemed like i rode a lot more than normal. of course the weather was bound to change !)

day one of #30daysofbiking found me looping pam's trail with a saw in my frame bag, my mission was to cut out a blowdown too heavy for her to move.

day two, i took a 'classic' picture of the nishiki in front of the swix thermometer. this winter, the bike was completely rebuilt. it rides as good as it looks. amazingly, the low temp of april has continued to be april 2nd. 2020 made it into the 20s, but '19 and '21 were both in the mid-teens.

day three was a saturday and after hiking up on moose mountain with pam in the morning, billy and i rode down to 'koby's way'. there were a few highwater hazards to negotiate, complete with some substantial beaver activity.

day four i rode up and over town hill behind our house. i was thinking with the snow mostly gone, especially where the sun hits, there would be good enough traction. i was wrong. dry leaves are wicked slippery. this is one of those cropped pics--go to @kobeest for the full view.

day five, six, seven, eight, and nine were all work days, but i ended up riding to every school in our five town district, at least twice. throw in the sau office at least three or four times and you get a sense of a pedaling IT support person.

clockwise starting at the top left: high school, just outside my office; canaan elementary, that's mrs evan's room she had both sawyer and sadie around thirty years ago; enfield village school, at the playground entrance; indian river school, the jr high directly behind the high school.

the week was mostly sunny and warm. the 'quackers', wood frogs, were out quacking on sunday and monday, and the 'peepers', tree frogs, started peeping toward the end of the week. the picture below is a wet sight across rt 4 in front of the high school where i always hear the first frogs of spring. the snapper is crawling out of that wet area onto the rail trail to lay eggs in a gravelly nest.

day ten and eleven share a tweet as i went up town hill twice over the weekend. my goal was to find a thin sapling and lash it high in the wolf pine at the height of land. the point being with a colorful 'flag' attached i should be able to spot it from surrounding high peaks. while the wind had me swaying a good ten feet side to side at the top of the pine, the fast ride down hill was still the 'high' point.

days twelve through fourteen were commuting days riding to all of the schools again. on thursday the 15th, i pedaled into hanover for my teeth cleaning. it was drizzly but i didn't get soaked until coming home from stopping to sweep at the bike shop. i figured i was out and about and friday--my usual shop sweeping day--it was supposed to snow all day.

this is a good day to end part one and get this posted pronto. riding everyday can be a challenge in new hampshire's april. going outside to play! is my 'way' to stay happy. 

more snow, more rain, deep cold, unusual warm, dead calm, extreme wind...a new england winter!

no lie, it has been a roller coaster ride of a winter. while i am not holding my breath, i am hoping for one more good snow storm--hey it's only halfway through march!

since i last posted at the start of february, i have had all kinds of adventures, solo, with pam, with friends, with former MOC students, on snow, on ice, in frigid cold, in downright balmy sunshine, and just today, a wicked west wind. this past week has seen temps swing from below zero, to above fifty, to back into single numbers. three days of warm and sunny, laid all the shovels down again that had been standing for weeks after a couple of good snows in february and a heavy-wet~ish one in march.

some highlights: skiing cardigan 3 or 4 times, once from the chute at dawn after 6 inches of fresh fluff; sledding the same route at least three times, once in powder with olivia; a late afternoon--with a finish in the dark--ski up south peak on moose mtn with justin and olivia; skiing over at the shaker wildlife management area a good number of times solo and once with skip where we met up with dick on a second run; at least a dozen runs up and down town hill in some sweet fresh snows, once with susan and pam; dozens of trips around pam's loop, a couple of them with pam joining me on skis; some stunning sunsets from a number of views; hiking cardigan for more views, one at sunset; socially spaced, outdoor meetup for hot cider and a bernie pose...

looking up, a socked in summit on cardigan, and down the chute, a tiny patch of early light in the valley.

olivia gearing up for a morning sled run on cardigan and then an evening run with justin over on moose mountain.

skip ready to point them down over at the swma and susan's and my ski tracks and pam's snowshoes up on townhill.

the truck, mid trail up on the east side of town hill with the second shot taken out of the windshield.

pam skiing the loop up by where she took this wonderful sunset shot--red at night skiers' delight!

atop cardigan at sunset and with hannah, pam, karen, and bill for hot cider on a cold afternoon.

a snow-bernie inspiration and another sunset out over the garden and moose mtn...

today, i took the opportunity of a frozen track to hike up town hill to the wolf pine at the height of land. my goal was to climb as high as possible--a la a younger sawyer--and tie a white flag to a branch. if we remember to take binoculars with us next time we hike south peak on moose mtn, i was thinking we could get a bead on it. 

you can't really see it up the tall pine in the center, but trust me, it's there. the tree has three rather large trunks and since the two on the left had so many live branches, i took the one to the right with not so much green to obstruct a small white flag. it's not quite so high, but it's more open to the west. the wind was moving the main trunks a good 10 feet, from east to west, so i was distracted and forgot to take a picture until i remembered, halfway back toward earth. it was still a grand view.

it was a good end to the week. and much different from the ~20 mile bike ride i took on friday on the newly refurbished nishiki. dick, cory, josh, and i transformed a classic '84 japanese steel touring bike into a modern one. i am looking forward to taking it for a few rides in this year's version--my 3rd go--of #30daysofbiking in april. it's not necessarily the most suitable time to ride in new england, but always interesting when you're outside and playing.

and then we got rain...lots of rain

over christmas eve into christmas day, we got just about 1.5 inches of rain. it was a heavy wet present santa brought down the chimney. unfortunately it melted all that snow we had gotten the week before!

i am calling the mass melting of two feet of snow, an 'all shovels down' event. the red one was down by boxing day. the grain scoop out back toppled over as well. in a proper wintery world, all that rain would have been feet of snow. it would have been one of the deepest decembers i had ever been in. it would have given kevin ample reason to warn me of avalanche danger--he would-ah, he could-ah, he should-ah!

along with the snow, any dreams of backcountry skiing also melted away. all that water was now puddled atop the frozen ground. it also essentially re-flooded the ice on the lakes. as the temps fell over the next couple of days, my hopes rose. there is going to be some incredible skating if the cold keeps up.

outdoor winter recreation doesn't have to begin with 's' though. skiing, skating, and sledding are definitely my first choices, but there are other opportunities, like a moonrise-sunset hike up our local mountain. 

cardigan makes a perfect viewing spot to see far to the way northeast--that's the south end of the franconia ridge with the snow peaks. it also has a clear view to the west--the high peaks across vermont are easily spotted, when they aren't silhouetted at sundown.

the cold did get colder and i got out skating several times on canaan street. it's a spring fed lake though and over the years, i have built up a 'library' of places to avoid early on. the day after justin, olivia, and her friend, grace, skated around the entire lake with me, two good friends, priscilla and elise, went through the ice in a thin spot. it was pretty horrific, but thanks to officer matt who just happened to see them, them not see them, canaan's cold water team pulled them out about 25 minutes later.  

as traumatic that was for the two women, i was relieved that it wasn't any of us that went in. turns out justin's mother had forbid him to go skating when he went around with me. it would have been pretty awkward telling angeline and patrick i was involved with his getting very wet and extremely cold.

several cold nights helped the ice add thickness, enough that i could convince pam to try it out--on mascoma lake's new skating loop. i had skated there--after the fire chief asked folks not to skate on canaan street--and talked to ice fishing people. they were measuring between 5 and 7 inches, with a super smooth surface. we got to skate some with billy, and joan, cofounder of the mlsa.  it was a glorious day.

we went back a couple of days later after a snowfall. the mlsa is trying to keep a loop plowed so there was a good long track to circle. it was incrediblely windy that day, which made skating north nigh on brutal. of course going south was easy peasy. i took a series of pam skating along photos, just as she turned out of the wind.

that is a big smile on her face, as it starts to warm up after being wind blasted. not long after this day there was a snow rain event and while i have heard the ice isn't that bad i have not been back.

i switched to hiking, keeping an eye on the coverage as it snows here and there. we are forecasted to get a nor'easter  february 2nd--if that comes and leaves some significant snow, i will be the one smiling while going outside and playing!

first we got snow...deep snow!

going to bed wednesday, the 16th, it was just starting to snow. the forecast had just changed from 4-6 inches, to 8-10, with the most down in the south west corner of nh. that meant to me, we could get a lot, and all snow. i fell asleep "while visions of [deep snow] danced in my head".

when i woke up thursday morning, i was rewarded--richly. there was already maybe 8" on the top of the vehicles and roofs, which obviously means the ground too, but it is harder to see. that, and it was still snowing hard. bonus, as i suited up for shoveling, it seemed to be coming down even harder. when i got out, i pushed around what was there for a couple hours. when i broke to go in, there was another 8" already built up where i had cleared at the start.

i was thrilled and anxious to get out, up high, turned around, and floating back down. the depth made me choose the steeper runs at shaker wma, hoping to recruit dick. the roads were horrendous and pulling into the bike shop parking area, i turned a bit early, where the road hadn't been plowed yet. it took about an hour of heavy shoveling to dig out. that delay gave dick enough time to finish what he was doing and after eating a bit of lunch we headed across the street. 

skis on the feet, we started plowing towards the trails. by the time we got to the bottom of where we planned to start up, i had lengthened my poles to their max and taken off my sweater. 

the going was about as hard work as i could remember. dick's skis seemed to come out of the depths a bit easier so he mostly broke trail--thank you. it was indeed deep--probably more than 2 feet. when we got to the top of the steep section, we decided enough , let's point them down. we stripped our skins, buckled boots tight, clamped down bindings, and pushed off. turns out we weren't done plowing.

if you stayed in the track we had broken out on the way up, you could move down. but if you went out into the deep, you got maybe one, or one and a half turns in before the snow, pushing at your crotch, stopped you, even at the steepest. you won't hear me say this often, but without a bottom to it, the snow was too deep. 

i gave it a night and went back out friday. still: too early, too deep, too much work. 

that night i convinced myself that the doughboy--a 215cm snowboard--would float it. i emailed olivia and convinced her to join me. we met at the bottom of the shaker hill and hiked up in a track some sledders had made. we buckled in at the top and pointed down. for the third time--it was brutally slow. unless you kept to a track you would sink almost immediately and stop. each time i went off, i got stopped. most of those times, stopping included falling over as well. getting back up was as exhausting as skinning though the deep on that first day. we gave up trying.

sunday, day four, i headed over to the AT off goose pond, figuring really steep had to do it. turns out others were headed for the same idea. they got there a couple hours earlier and it looked like it was indeed fun. i found some untracked areas and practically flew down. that was more like it. i didn't even see all those animal tracks i was following on the way up.

i stopped at skip's to get him to go take a run somewhere. he was busy, so i skinned up town hill solo. the run down the other side was really sweet. i was pretty excited to skin back up and fly down into our dooryard. it was all that i dreamed of. the bottom had finally developed, with the top cold, dry, and fast.

the picture on the left was the track over rowen's log (see oct 12th goap! for rowen riding it). the rock hop on the right was at the 'sledding corner' (see feb 2018 goap! grace and suki sledding). when i got back in the house, i emailed olivia and we arranged to meet again over at the shaker wma--for another go at it.

the next day it was much warmer and somewhat sticky. read slow, and grippy enough i could scale up without skins. that was ok in that we could hit the glades and olivia's first backcountry skiing through the trees would be less anxious. we got by lost pond and started down. as long as you kept moving, it was a good run. when you stopped, you clumped up. basically, i tried not to stop though we changed packs, and i took the big one with snowshoes in it. i also gave her my mittens which let her ride with her hands out of her pockets. 

 

the next day it was much warmer and somewhat sticky. read slow, and grippy enough i could scale up without skins. that was ok in that we could hit the glades and olivia's first backcountry skiing through the trees would be less anxious. it also helped to change packs, and loan her my extra big mittens so she could ride with her hands out of her pockets. that made her smile big--even after she tried jumping a downed tree, and didn't quite make it. as she floated by 'dusting' herself off, she said something like "thanks for the mittens--that helped!"

tuesday was colder and the snow had actually dried out some, not nearly so sticky and still about a foot deep--the bottom was rising--which made it slow~ish. that made cardigan the choice of the day. it was good, but being the sixth day after the snowfall, it was getting tracked out. that never helps.

wednesday was even colder and dryer, and even though the bottom was even higher, about 6 inches now. i went back for one last go at a trail i had noticed had only a central snowshoe track, leaving plenty of edge to turn in. amazingly, the conditions were just about the best of any of the previous days. 

it was a good thing as the rain started christmas eve afternoon and kept up right through christmas day. that wasn't so bad, as i was inside baking the annual christmas pulla while the snow melted. being outside and playing is always good--even when you are getting wet--but after six days i was ok taking a break.