jan 2nd snowride

after fridays beachride i rode along to my parents on the Saturday morning via the local ridgeroad on the pugsley to get a bit more snowriding in while there was still some snow,it was nearly all gone at my house but just 2 miles and a few hundred feet elevation and theres still a covering on the garltons..,
it was a lovely clear day after a dismal overcast dawn with sleet/drizzle showers,views were great up on barney hill the highest part of the ridgeroad where the transmitter masts are...



there was an approaching cloud from the east..which i thought would be rain or sleet..i was wearing my paclite jacket so was overheating alot at the top of the climb so stopped to remove one of two baselayers,then i turned round and the darkening cloud was nearly on top of us..oh-oh..that looks quite threatening...

next thing the wind got up and it was a blizzard!,i rode down along to the next section of trail and was glad to have the wind behind me...onto the road down to turn off onto the old railwayline walk and it was starting to lie on the road,yes...

i chuckled to myself,riding through a whiteout,flat-out with a strong taiwind and slipknot had just come on on my ipod...,heres the road within a few minutes/half a mile...hell have no fury indeed!...

it had passed by the time i was down the railwaywalk but there was more on the way..

at my folks there was another big dusting...i headed for home at dusk riding up the railwayline into the dark and boom...total whiteout...onto the road up to the garlton hills and it was around 3-4" on the tarmac..quite hard to see into the snow..,once it went off i took some pics...only a couple of car tracks...


at blacktoll crossroads the ridgeroad continues east as a trail..,this was the main road looking downhill to the town of haddington...cars were crawling along!..

my tracks from 4 hours ago were now gone..


the stars were visable above but you could see the storm ahead reflected off the streetlights to the south down at haddington...


then everything went very white..and cold..i was warm working quite hard in the deep snow though so not too worried...up the tarmac hill to the style at the top where taking a picture into the snow produced this!...

i had to push uphill on the trail onto the level so switched off my lights and pushed on through deep snow nearly knee deep..it was hard work and had to stop a few times...its funny how sometimes your in a position where there is the potential for something serious going wrong runs through your head and it speeds up your pulse a bit..this was here...only a few hundred yards from a public road and 4 miles from home but up there in the dark in that weather it could of been anywhere...
i took 2 pics as i had a breather,one with flash,one without...


i didnt hang around riding down the eastside of the trail,it was a bit slow with the snow depth so i just kept riding,could really feel the cold through my now damp buff under my helmet,2 miles hardpack roads and home..straight in the house into the kitchen with pugsley!,it thawes out there with a big towel underneath,then a quick dry of the chain and a re-wax...

what a great snowride..,however.. as i slept mother nature was at work through the night..wait till you see what i woke to next morning...