Part 2
Greetings and welcome!
It is a cloudy day outside, and a very warm one. As I mentioned below, Athelstane Weather marked 53 degrees today. No matter how you slice it, that isn’t good. There is a LOT of melting going on. Snow piles are shrinking fast and the trails are turning black from the dirt in the snirt remaining after the snow went away.
It took a couple of tries to get back into the driveway from my service call, what was a packed 6″ base yesterday is applesauce today, and it was giving the truck a pretty bad time even in 4wd. Places that I was plowing yesterday are mud today, especially the sunny spots. The March sun is wicked, even through an overcast.
Tomorrow and Friday we will get a little bit of a break from the 50s, but they look like sunny and 35-40º days. Saturday and Sunday look like sunny and 50+.
While you might be able to find places to ride in the deep snow of some back roads or sheltered areas, and maybe some trails north of Benson Lake Rd or Hwy 8, I don’t see us getting another good weekend in on the trails around here this weekend. If the melting this week doesn’t do it the 50+ and sunny over the weekend probably will.
Unless we get a nice surprise, it might be time to drop the curtain on one of the worst seasons in my time here.
That’s news for today. Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Part 1
Greetings and welcome!
Yesterday was the ride it ’till ya break it tour. I didn’t break it per say, but it will definitely need some work before I go out again.
I went out riding with some friends yesterday afternoon. We hit trails in Athelstane, Silver Cliff, Goodman, Dunbar, and quite a few up in Florence County. Our leader guessed at about 140-150 miles, and it was probably that or a little higher. My final tally was about 19 gallons of gas. At a low end of 8mpg and a high end of 10, I’d guess at 150-190 miles.
We rode a wide variety of conditions. Some trails were pretty beat up, some were nice. I’d put it at about 60% decent and about 40% getting choppy. Not many had seen grooming in the last day. The low end was Iron Snowshoe between here and Brandywine and some stretches up on the trail north that probably hadn’t been groomed since Saturday night. Those were (ahem) a little rough.. The nicest were the trails the Blue Ox groomed Monday.
The RXL did ok, but it came up with a heat related bog that would come and go. My guess right now is that I have a coil breaking down on one cylinder. I am sure that it will need some carbides and maybe skis, there was some ugly bare road getting to the trails and a few stretches along the way.
It was a hard day chasing a couple of guys on new sleds on my old 92, they could fly through the whoops, I got to enjoy them a little more up close and personal.
One guy spun a crank bearing up by Florence, ending his day. Thankfully it was only about 2 miles out of town, so it didn’t take much to tow it to where we could fetch it with a trailer.
It was a heck of a day out of the trails, and I couldn’t have done it without you guys and your generous donations. Thank you very much!
Today we have a warm but cloudy day. I just checked Athelstane Weather, and they are showing 53.4. Yuck.
Ed asked if the trails officially close the 15th. Most do, but they can be open as late as April 1. Usually they aren’t because the March sun can eat 6-10″ of snow by noon at the end of the month. If we had another barnburner storm like last week’s, they could be open later than the 15th, but that it up to the clubs and county alliances.
Well, I have to run to go on a service call. I will stop back a little later and finish up here.
Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB