Winter has come to Corvallis

The weather this morning was icy again, with snow in the hills. I wanted to get up into the snow, so I selected the mountain bike. A thin layer of ice had been deposited as sleet overnight, but it didn’t look too bad out the window at home. A few blocks into the ride I was having doubts about my bicycle selection. The mountain bike tires crunched through the frozen sleet, as I tentatively made my way along the paved portion of my route. The pavement ended as I went into the forest along Oak Creek, climbing towards Dimple Hill. As I climbed the snow on the ground got deeper and I left the first set of tracks all the way to the top. At the top of Dimple Hill (see picture) I was in the snow clouds and there were a couple of inches of snow. It was smooth going on the slight downhill traverse to the Lewisburg Saddle, but then the snow intensified for the return trip. As I got back to Dimple Hill, the sun came out and the snow in the air looked like diamond dust. A fast downhill brought me back out at Oak Creek, and the ice on the pavement had completely melted in the bright sunshine.

Winter mountain biking haiku:

Crunchy dark ice-mud
Covered in feathery snow;
Must pedal downhill