finesse

Yesterday was my first mountain bike excursion in the snow. It was cooooold! I looked quite hysterical with my black thermals, and baggy shorts on top, and non-matching socks hiked up as far as they would go. My legs were cold at the beginning of the ride, but the rest of me got toasty. 2 baselayers and a fleece took care of the top, and my new sixsixone gloves did their job.
I didn't realize 'til the end of the ride that I'd blown a seal on my fork. Jake was watching me ride and thought it just needed air (so did I), because i was compressing it the whole way everytime I went down hills, even smaller ones. But nope, a closer look, and a handful of goo (from the broken seal) proved us wrong. Should be fixed quick enough though. Back to the ride...I love riding in the snow. I found myself exhibiting some rare moments of finesse around bends, up hills, that I don't usually have. There's something about knowing you could slide out, knowing there are roots hidden under that snow...it makes you work harder. Things I can do easily without the snow, become a bit of a challenge.
When we set out for the ride, our landlords watched us load up the bikes and said, "wow, you guys are hardcore...it's so coolllld." heh. It wasn't really THAT cold though. About 30 degrees I guess. So I rode in the snow on 2 wheels, can't wait to get the 'ol plank out (aka snowboard).