Ice beards and coffee

 You know a few things I like about touring this time of year:  Hot coffee, rolling over frozen mud  and that unnerving and tingly feeling of riding across frozen ponds. I admit the chill has had me spending a bit more time chatting with folks at crossroad general stores and local coffee shops than usual.When I say chatting its more like explaining my winter audacity and expounding the conundrum of the "Mad Max" bike. The days are short and so are my daily distances but I'm ok with that. I have really just enjoyed this cannonball back into the relaxing and chill life of riding, exploring and just seeing the sights. 

The ice gauntlet

A young tick impressionist 

 I dig the fat tires for opening me up to previously unridable snowy terrain. And now that I have fallen into the rhythm of this new bike and found my pace with these massive ground eaters. I appreciate the slower pace and the not holding back on going as rugged as I can for fear of destroying my rig.

Brattleboro

 Melody and her awesome and eclectic B&B. Thanx for hooking up the cyclist discount on a  night dropping well into the negative degrees.

It felt like spring time back in The Hudson Valley.

There is no bad time of year... just skinny tires.

   Did I really wish it to be colder in the last post? Little did I know, a short January thaw is pretty common.

After a cozy night in Comand

 All cold fronts aside its been some fantastic touring. I've settled into a great mix of small highway, rail trail and snow mobiles routes.

 I rolled out of Maine into New Hampshire through the White Mountains. Clouds and overcast obscured the big views on most those days but I made due imagining the epic vistas around me. The famous Mt. Washington dashed from view in its grey bathrobe. The quiet and crunchy forests with occasional bits of streaking sunshine certainly did not go unnoticed.

  A huge Thanx goes out to Jeff and Tina for their amazing hospitality! You guys are truly awesome.

     Ride far, fat and wide.

A slushy contender in the Maine event

Its has been a great time slogging through the back country of midish Maine. Hubert pitched me out of the car at The Forks. I spent the first few days slipping sliding, slopping and plodding on snowmobile paths. As amazingly beautiful as it was the going was incredibly tough. The snow was just to soft. I couldn't have had more than couple of pounds in each tire and still no traction. I never spent more time going forward with the bars turned or fallen off so many times in a day before. I could look behind me and see a zig-zagging rut with several pits where I hit the ground. That was the better times when I actually could ride. As fun as it was I've retreated to plowed roads. There is a cold front rumored to be coming in and I hope to get back off road.

The CTR and the Crown of Three

So I managed to smash, gouge, stumble and prance my way through three amazing events. A full summers worth: the Arizona Trail race, The Tour Divide and finally The Colorado Trail race. 4000 miles of total off-road gallivanting. The last and shortest of them all, the CTR proved to be the most difficult, naturally. Man what a run. Every time everything pleaded to stop or I just wanted to sleep in, somehow I won the battle and pushed on. A truly fantastic experience. As much as I would love to do it all again next year and chip minutes or days off my times. There are so many trails and dirt roads around the world I have never ridden. They infest my daydreams and claw at me like a succubus in the night. So enough of this moonlighting as an endurance racer. I'm going back to the full time off-road touring cyclist. Because the only thing sad about the routes I rode last summer is they are relatively short. Ok that and I like to sleep and cruise.