[Bob the Wheelbuilder]

I rode my Pugsley up to my cabin in the Uintas in northern Utah yesterday. It's about 6 miles one way, with a groomed snowmobile trail for the first half, and ungroomed snowmobile tracks after that. Conditions were good with firmly packed snow.

I've ridden in at the end of the season twice. Once I encountered thick frozen crust which rode very well, but the second time the snow was snow cone like crystals and I got stuck and had to turn around after the groomed portion. This was my first ride on midwinter snow.

Traction was usually good, but every once in a while the rear tire would start to squirm on a climb and require some smoothing of my pedaling to keep going. I imagine that snowmobile trail riding can range from concrete like surfaces to totally unrideable granules. I'm looking forward to getting more experience learning to read the snow.

 

[Bob the Wheelbuilder]

Another cabin owner was up with a snowcat. It has enough flotation that it's tracks don't compact the snow as well as a snowmobile does so it was harder to ride behind it.

Pic #2 is the East Fork of the Bear River. There's running water under the snow, but you wouldn't know it from the picture.

Temperatures were in the high 20's. I had Craft insulated tights over regular bike shorts and 4 layers on top (long sleeved un-de-shirt, thin thermal top, wool jersey and Gore shell), a skullcap, lobster claw mitts and my insulated shoes. I was a tiny bit cold at the start, but once pedaling, I removed my gloves and unzipped my upper layers about half way to keep from overheating. I then adjusted the zips and wore or removed the gloves as needed to keep a comfortable temperature as the ride progressed.

I was running about 8-9 psi in the back and 6 psi in the front, the same pressures I used for my recent ride on Sand Mountain. I was planning on dropping the pressure as needed for traction, but I ended up leaving things alone as these pressures were working great.

 

[KRob]

Nice Bob.

Phillip keeps telling me I need a fat bike for the snow and I've been somewhat unconvinced until recently. I've definitely encountered some surfaces that would seem to favor a fat tire. Maybe I can get a demo on your's sometime.

I've found the same thing with Cat tracks. They chop the surface up too much so even when it's frozen and hard enough to ride on top of..... it's pretty rough.

 

[Valhalla]

Looks like fantastic concrete trail conditions (and warm too)!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[tscheezy]

Phillip keeps telling me I need a fat bike for the snow and I've been somewhat unconvinced until recently.

I'm persuasive like that.