On my most recent "stand-out" ride, I rolled out of my driveway and right down to the frozen shore of Lake Huron not 15 seconds away. It was like my own private frozen wasteland coming across only one other person on all of my outings along the lake.
It was refreshing as hell and incredibly satisfying to have this almost literally right at my front door. All new, all untouched and all mine. I experimented with the route a little this year and found I could get way further out and away than I had previously thought. Next year, I'll be ready and waiting for similar conditions and will press further. I also need to recruit a few fat bikers to come along and make a day out of it perhaps.
Gear up right though!!! I managed to still stay warm with a windchill of more than -28C!! Hahaha Yeah baby.
The ice still isn't as far out or as stable as when I was a kid but still quite good and safe closer to shore: which is where I was able to stay (if not right on shore) and still get to where I wanted to go. It really felt EPIC.
Great fun.
Day two.........not so blue. That's open water in the upper middle portion of the frame. When I was younger, it was always ice as far as you could see.
Another sad sight that I was surprised to see at this time of year were zebra mussels: IMO a sign of just how bad it's really getting.
The mussels are not native to our great lakes and were accidentally introduced via ballast water from ocean going vessels back in the 80's. Since then, the mussel problem has grown exponentially. The mussels are very intrusive and are changing our lakes in a BIG way. It's a tough battle; an impossible one in fact. I think they are here to stay. If I ever see an asian carp on the shore though..............oh boy.
Anyway. Mild weather returned for a time so my shore outings are all but over. Soon it will be onto the muddy trails and gravel roads again. It's the time of year where I can't get enough cross bike action so...
REALLY looking forward to some singletrack days though. I'm committed to getting out on the MTB as much as possible (despite a HUGE work year that is coming). I'll try to spend some quality time updating the blog and make it worth reading as opposed to typing these little 2 minute spout offs (like this entry was). Totally un-planned and not really thought out at all. My apologies for that.
Thank you very much for checking in and reading.
I appreciate it.
Don't forget to leave messages or comments. Always stoked to know someone's out there.
Cheers!
Ride on.
Steve
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