First Tracks!

I've never ridden in January, or February as a matter of fact. It's been warm here in the Okonagan and real wet for over a month. No better time than now to start riding! A lot of people won't be on the bike until the snow is all gone but I have decided to take advantage of shredable dirt. I put a few fenders on my AM bike got and got out the wet weather gear that's been sitting in my closet since I moved here. I headed out to Kal park in the rain the past few days and pounded out some vert both up and down. The snow that fell during the early winter has been packed into ice on most of the walking trails in the park but still offered up enough traction if I remained in the saddle. It's like your riding on a uber long wet root and if you stand up you'll start to spin so you have to stay low on the bike and keep the weight centered over the wheels to keep you from spinning out. On any sun baked terrain it was semi dry to soaking wet. At 300 to 600 meters the trails were much more exposed and there was very little snow. Today I was running a lower tire pressure than normal so climbing in the mud with low PSI was a bit of a slug but I managed. the lower PSI increases your traction on the slippery ice. A granny gear would have been nice!!
I did a trail called Coming around the mountain first which has a relative low grade and was easy enough considering I have been off the bike for a while. I then did a trail called the wall, it climbs from around 300M up to 700M it's pretty steep and not too much of a problem in the dry. In snow its a different story. I had to push a few times but nothing serious. As I got closer to 700M it got more and more slippery. Once I got to the top the plateau over the top was exposed again by the sun. There were no other tracks up there so I call freshies!!!!!
The first 150M of the decent were soooooo sketchy....I have never ever had such little control on my bike.... but it was awesome!!!! Riding on such instable terrain are great for balance and learning to keep the bike upright in the wet slick stuff. A couple of times I found myself in a 2 wheel lock up with one foot out to counter the drift...it was so loose!!!! Once I got through that the trail was primo!! I ripped down to the truck and called it a day. I was pretty bagged as I was skiing all morning..... life is rough. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow!!!!!