22 miles on the bike right at 3 hours. Well today I took a big bite into craziness. I got on the bike and was going to ride from here up Turkey farm road then then over the trail down into Dameron Valley and then loop around. Only when I got up the road to the trail turn off I couldn't remember which one it was so I took a trail that I knew.... the Broken Mesa/ Icehouse trail back around. I had water with me in a typical bike bottle mounted on the frame and I didn't use any of it until I left the dirt road and hit the trail... so right around 9 miles into it. Then I started up the trail and it was snowy but cold enough that everything was frozen so for the most part I was able to bear down and peddle up to the top of the Mesa. However the higher I got up the more snow I ran into. I thought as I got on top and hit the south facing side that the snow would soon be gone. Wishful thinking. I spent the next four miles or so coming down the mesa in 8 inches of snow. I was pushing my bike and trying to run... The snow was really crusty and in some spots I actually was able to just ride my bike across the surface and then it would suddenly brake and I'd almost go over the handle bars. This whole process took forever and I went for my water - only to find the entire bottle frozen. The wind had picked up and it was now snowing. I'm guessing around 15 degrees colder then down in town. I had climbed from 2,800 ft to over 5,300 ft. I actually started to think that things were getting kind of scary and the thought of spending the night up there pushed me even harder. Finally I got to the end of the snow and was able to push the pace a little more. As I was coming down off the Mesa I came across 3 big (4 point) buck's. I could have kicked myself for not having a camera. It looked cool with them standing in the snow and the snow coming down in the background. Anyways I finally dropped off the trail and opted to go straight into GS and then home. That was enough trails for one day Thank You very much. It's been a long time since I had a 3 hour workout. Maybe years. I ran this trail on March 6, 2007 and it took me 2:40. Today on a bike with the snow I was right at 3 hours. I did go a little farther today (1.8 miles) but not much. As I was coming down the steep, rocky Icehouse trail I only stopped and put my foot down once. And at that point I had a big string of snot hanging down across my face. So the stop was useful (so I could wipe it clean) but to that point I had been pushing it like I was running for my life. I'd say on a scale of 1-10 this ride/run/snow/workout hits around 10. Other than Chuck Norris and myself I'm guessing there are only a handful of other people who could have pulled this one off.
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