Cycling home from work at about 10 PM, there was about 1/2" of fresh powder
snow on top of hardpack, ice or bare pavement, depending on where I rode.
The front tire kicked up a plume of cold dry powder that shot straight
forward out of the gap between the tire and the fender, into the beam of my
headlight. It looked like a stream of white smoke shooting out in front of
me, then billowing around my fork blades as I moved forward.
Later on in the ride, a stiff breeze from the north blew all that fluffy
powder up the side of the Dillon Dam, creating a minor whiteout and dropping
the snow into little piles on the Dam Road. All that powder hanging in the
air above the road looked so pretty until I rode into it, and found the
right side of my face being sandblasted by tiny granules of snow.
Once across the dam, the ride into Frisco was a winter biker's dream. The
snow on the road was just the right texture for the Hakkapeliitas to bite
into, the few cars out there gave me a wide berth, and I had just enough
energy to push the Stumpjumper to a high enough speed to make the ride fun.
Winter biking doesn't get too much better than this.
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