Living in Fort Collins

The 3rd annual Grinch Grinder took place on Thursday. This ride is becoming an annual tradition here.

The snowy weather had us questioning whether we would be able to ride at Bobcat Ridge, as planned. Therefore, I headed out the day before to check conditions at Bobcat. The conditions were less than ideal, with nearly 8" of new snow on top of the ice left by last week's snow melting in the warmer temps from earlier in the week making it difficult to ride a bike. However, the peaceful valley was beautiful with the snow falling and no one else around. Had I planned more time or brought my snowshoes, I could have enjoyed another hour or so up there.

After some quick texting back and forth, a decision was made later in the evening to change the location of the ride to the dog park in Fort Collins, in order to continue the tradition.

The cloudless blue Colorado sky greeted us on Christmas Eve, with a temperature nearing 20 degrees at ride time. We had 9 hearty souls show up. The plan was to wear ugly Christmas outfits, but only one came through, dressed as Buddy the Elf. We had one rider on a purpose built snow bike, and one on a fixed gear road bike, with the remainder of the riders sporting mountain bikes of the geared or SS variety.

An initial assault of the ridge at Pineridge Open space was thwarted by deep snow, so our backup plan has us cruising the local bike path through town. Fort Collins is great, in that they keep the bike trails clear of snow in the winter, and this day was no exception. Given time constraints, our ride turned into an out-and-back ride, with the turn around point being the local BMX track. We could not just turn around here, though. The fresh snow begged us to make a lap, so we attempted it. The depth of the snow kept us from turning in a fast lap time, but we had fun anyway.

This year's ride differed from last in terrain, in the fact that it was not co-ed, and that there was no chocolate and poetry (due mostly to not having any ladies dumb enough to show up). I look forward to seeing what next year's ride brings.