White Pipestone

At this time of year in this neck of the woods, there is only one area that is rideable on the fatty.  Pipestone is usually compliant in the spring with trails that are dry and begging to be ridden.  Weekly rides are starting back up and it was game on for Monday.  I was noncommittal all day as I watched fluffy white stuff fall out of the skies.  The temps never got above the mid 30's but the theory was that Pipestone would be warmer (usually 5-10 degrees warmer).

As we headed over the pass, the snow continued to fall and even accumulate on the side of the road.  At this point in the day the temps were also starting to drop.  At this point we were committed and still hopeful that conditions would improve when we pulled into the little banana belt of SW Montana.  Wrong-O-Rama! It continued to dump....not only was it snowing but there was more accumulation in Pipestone than there was on the other side of the Cont Divide in Butte.  

 

At this time of year, desperate itches call for desperate solutions and sometimes that is more cow-bell, other times it is riding in inclement weather...Monday night called for riding in sleet/snow.

Once we got moving it got better...the body warmed up, but the hands, feet, and face started to get cold...after a while you just learned to ignore the blocks of wood that were your feet...it was all good, rubber tire was on dirt so all was well!

The conditions did not let up for a good couple of hours though - it continued to sleet and snow sideways right into our faces.  The trails somehow managed to stay visible since snow did not seem to be accumulating, but everything else was a thick blanket of white.

All the white stuff was new (was not there on Saturday) and it made for somewhat of a peaceful postcard image (if you could ignore the frozen digits).  

Riding conditions kept us focused as the combination of some slick wet rock and loose dirt (from the recent moto races) kept a guy fully engaged.

I did manage to eat dirt once when descending.  My front wheel got gobbled up by a deep rut that made a sharp right turn and "hello, body meet dirt".  Here is to hoping this is the last snowy ride of the season.....