Riding in the snow at Upper Paugussett State Forest

The forecast had called for a lot more snow but there was only a half an inch by midday on Monday.

I headed out to Upper Paugussett and found some surprises, like this new cut through to the unauthorized trail.

Who ever took out this Up and Over should be keel hauled. Must be the same person that keeps blocking this route with the nice little roller and rock garden. My guess is that its some Strava-pon (think of Strapon) who wants a cleaner route to maintain his precious KOM. 

Reminds me of the time I uploaded all my old GPS data to Strava and it wasn't the cleanest data because there were breaks in the tracks. In the old days before Garmin Edges and Wahoos all we had were these big, inaccurate GPSs that we turned on and through into our hydration packs. Once Strava processed all the data I got all these KOMs (King of the Mountain) and the current KOM holder went berserk and started flagging all these tracks. I had to make them private. Those tracks however were before there was ever an Upper Gussy Trail.  

As I rode up the Wet Spot (obviously not wet right now) I noticed this frozen water bottle on top of a tree stump. It immediately reminded me of the frozen Jack Nicolson from the Shining. 

I posted this picture on Instagram and a follower mentioned that it was his.
I will have to pick it up my next time through there.

I was cursing myself for not grabbing a fender for the ride in and out because Sanford and Tamarac Roads were really sloppy.  All the ice on the trees reminded me of that movie The Ice Storm, which was filmed in and about the 1974 Ice Storm in New Canaan, CT. Which is where I grew up.