Wagon Wheel area 12-27 to 12-30

Definitely my first experience with decent snow. My first impression, atv's suck in the snow and XTR's are not snow tires.
I'm glad I went and had fun but I doubt I'll do it again. It is a slow pace for sure, spent much of the trip in 4wd as an attempt to keep a normal 2wd pace. It is something to try for sure. Moderately steep hills were a challenge to say the least. Heck, flat trails with fresh snow were a challenge. Temps were nothing to write home about but I expected that. What I didn't expect was that every unfrozen mud hole was going to add another layer of ice to my bike. These pictures don't do it justice. I couldn't have used my winch if I wanted to. The entire front of my bike was caked in ice. Several times I had no brakes, it was like putting the pedal to the boards, nothing there. Rears were fine luckily. You can call it over exaggerating if you want but I'll bet I ended up with at least another 100 pounds of ice on my bike when all was said and done. It is still outside thawing out. I hope my CV boots are still intact.
I hate to even comment about the sport guys, man did they get a workout. I can't believe they made any forward progress to begin with on some of the trails.
Snow was hit or miss, sometimes just a trace, sometimes 8-10 inches easy. Sometimes all in the same trail, it just didn't make sense. At first I thought it was elevation, then I thought it was the amount of sunshine, then I just gave up trying to figure it all out.
It was different for sure.........

NO way would I ever attempt to ride that area with a 2 wheel drive in all of that snow

Sorry guys, I wish I had some of the deep snow pictures. These pics make it look easy.

Bobby D wrote:

NO way would I ever attempt to ride that area with a 2 wheel drive in all of that snow

.
Those are some beautiful pics though!!

Thanks for the pics. Your report just confirms how I feel about cold weather.

The pics are cool

3rd thru 7th picture, ain't that the beaver dam at pinnacle creek.

bubba53 wrote:

3rd thru 7th picture, ain't that the beaver dam at pinnacle creek.

Yes, this is the main drag from Wagon Wheel to the Tee. Parts of the bottom are really soft now, I guess a lot of silt is collecting there. It was a bit surprising.

You guys should have been up there yesterday! It was really cold!!! Breath taking COLD!

I had my share, waiting for Spring now.

simoniz, you take any pictures

I got a few, nothing great, will post up later...

Nice pics. looked like a fun time... well except for that guy in the sport quad stuck in the ice. That must've sucked.

KC

KC0514 wrote:

Nice pics. looked like a fun time... well except for that guy in the sport quad stuck in the ice. That must've sucked.

KC

They were stuck all over, crazy for even trying.
I did have fun mostly because it was my first time in deep snow but it'll probably be my last time. It's very different.....

I left yesterday to come home. Fresh powder is cool to ride in but that frozen 8" to 14" stuff is no fun.