Project Beastie Bike

Well, there's a Winter Advisory for the counties where I'm planning to travel in the morning, with lows in the single digits tonight and 1-4" of snow by noon. Cold is fine . . . icy roads may be an issue, since a lot of the route is steep and curvy. It's normally a 2 hour drive from my house, so I may have to pick another location for my ride. I'll decide in the morning. Gear is all packed and bike is loaded, either way.
 
11.6 miles along the Cherry, Gauley, and Cranberry Rivers today. A real winter mess, with roads really bad on the 2+ hour drive home, but it was worth it.

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Perfect bike for that.

Because I finally ordered studded tires (after, what, 6? 7? years of bike commuting through winter?), all the snow melted here and it's going to be in the 40s for awhile, + rain.
 
I was reminded again on both of my treks this weekend that pedaling through snow upstream on even a gentle incline is much more difficult than pedaling up a dry trail, even if the ground underneath is frozen solid. Both outings over the N.Y. weekend took far more effort than biking the same trails in the summer, and the fine, grainy snow wasn't more than an inch deep. I ended up pushing for some stretches to give my muscles a break.
 
I left with my bike early this morning for a whirlwind trip to Pocahontas County and Cranberry Glades in West Virginia's eastern highlands. Weather reports had indicated they’d probably have some snow on the ground, but boy did I underestimate that! It doesn’t look like a lot of snow – until you look at the photo of my bike standing upright, held only by snow. That scene was repeated a few times along my route. It was 19F when I started, and the wind was relentless all morning. It was beautiful, though, with a crystal clear blue sky and magnificent scenery. Those mountains you see in the background were my playground today, as I trekked up and down them in an 8 mile circuit. It was often easier and faster to just push the bike, as opposed to grinding uphill in deep snow, or trying to pedal through snow with several inches of soppy muck underneath.

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Snow's not too deep either, which probably helps. Looks gorgeous and empty.
The lack of humans makes it tempting, but physical exertion and I don't get along.
The pace is amazing, and was very empty. As remote as it is, it draws a crowd in good weather, but in weather like Saturday, I had the place all to myself. See that wide open space in pics #2 & #3? That's the bare area you see just to the north of the small inner track on the aerial view below. That smaller red ring is the 1/2 mile boardwalk. The larger route was my track around the basin. I know of no way to get to the much larger bog area in the very middle of the basin. I'm sure people have found a way, and I bet it's fascinating. As for physical exertion, there was plenty Saturday, but I've worked my way up to it over the years. I was so overweight and out of shape when I first started hiking again that a 2 mile hike wore me out and left me hurting for several days. I enjoyed it though, so I kept at it, working my way up to 4, 5, 7, and eventually, 10+ miles on my Saturday outings, and have even hit a few 14-17 mile day hikes. Nothing else I'd rather be doing on a Saturday.

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We're about to take posession of a used Bianchi cyclocross bike from friends. The frame is a mix of carbon and aluminum, fork is carbon. Thing probably weighs 22, 23 pounds tops. Neither of us wants drop bars or drop controls, so I'll have a serious project swapping all that out (nooooobody does this, probably for good reason) but the weight of it should be a huge smile-generator. I'm excited.
 
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