Friday Follies ~~ Winter Mountain Biking

Winter is coming.  I think we can all feel it.  We’re enjoying a truly spectacular Autumn, but we know that it won’t last.  It will get colder, and darker.

Over the many years, I’ve suggested that one great way to get some Winter cycling done is to go mountain biking.  There are a lot of arguments for this.  The speeds are not as great, so one doesn’t encounter as much wind chill.  In among the trees there is more wind shelter too.  Mountain biking subjects us to steeper climbs, so we tend to make more body heat.  That helps too.

There are more serious aspects.  Mountain biking, off road, cross-country riding develops and hones bike handling skills.  Those skills just could come in handy on the road.

But more than any practical reason, it is just plain fun to get outside, into the woods, and play on a bike!

A good friend of mine is a pretty dedicated mountain bike rider.  Jim is an all around good guy, but he loves to get out into the back woods, preferably in the mountains.

Jim is a good bike handler.  He is not a crazy-nuts dare devil, but he has good skills.  More, he has an unusual talent.  Jim finds water.  He likes to get wet, and he has a positive genius for finding stream crossings.  Go riding with Jim, and you come back with wet feet.  I haven’t done this, but I am certain that, if Jim and I went for an off-road ride in the Mojave Desert, he would find a way to get us into water.  It would turn out that the stream was too wide to portage, and there would be no other way around it.

I should add, temperature does not deter this man.  I have been with him when it was in the mid-30s, and there were were, up to our knees in a wide stream crossing.  Ice was floating by, and Jim was grinning his head off.

Now I am not averse to water.  I know how to dress for cold temps.  But the combination of wet and cold is pretty tough.  Yet, my friend Jim seems to thrive on it.

A couple of years ago, Jim and I led a group on a mountain bike adventure weekend.  It was a blast.  It was in the late Fall, and it was up in the north Georgia mountains.  We hit Smith Gall woods.  Multiple stream fordings.  Deep water.  Chilly morning.  We even managed to find some wet stuff in Unicoi State Park.  I have this memory of stopping to pull my winter riding boots off and drain them, ring my socks out, and pull the whole sodden mess back on.

It’s been a while since Jim and I managed to coordinate schedules and get into the woods together.  It’s getting cooler out.  I’m thinking about going off-road riding.  I guess it’s about time to get my feet wet again.