Another reason to get a Surly Pugsley

Had a spate of warm weather on Friday and Saturday morning that I decided to take advantage of it but it turns out that they snow in my area is too deep to ride in. I needed to check out some ATV tracks that I noticed the other day that entered Upper Paugussett State Forest off of Hanover Rd. I took the opportunity to give the Helmet Cam another shot. This time I mounted it further back on the helmet and it seems to have done some good but it's not perfect.



The first section of the fire road was tough, having to call upon Granny for help in order to keep moving fast enough to prevent sinking. In the video above you can sort of make out that it starts out good but that's only because this part of the fire road didn't have a lot of snow due to the pine trees covering this section and that it gets very wet. As I emerged out from under the pine trees, though, the snow got deep and wasn't very well packed which made it extremely difficult to ride in. I think this is where a Surly Pugsley would have been perfect.

By the depressions in the snow I could tell that an ATV had come through this section, which is still illegal, but the track it made was of no help to me. There were also some Cross Country Ski and snow shoe tracks, too.



That flat part of the fire road, besides the climb up the back side of the mountain, was brutal and extremely tiring. In this video I give a little commentary on riding this section (there's no music).



Riding in this stuff was next to impossible and really tiring.


At the intersection with the white trail and this quasi new trail where there was logging a few years back there was a nice XC Ski track that I was tempted to follow.

I am going to have to come back with my XC Skis and explore this section some more. That skier must have had some fun.

And here we are heading down the west side of the mountain. I think this came out a little better. The positioning of the camera on the helmet needs a little adjustment, I think it should be forward a little more. Otherwise, it was a fun ride down the mountain.

Gratuitous Bike Porn Shot:

This short ride is tied with my ride at West Woods as being the most tiring ride of my life. At least I didn't have drive anywhere. Until all this snow melts, I think I am sticking to riding my fixed gear on the roads and XC skiing.