Two days of snow - part 2.

After deciding that the bike was in pretty fine fettle after Saturdays shakedown (apart from a draggy front brake, which needs bleeding), I went out again on Sunday for a longer ride. More snow had fallen overnight and through the morning, and I wanted to head over to one of my favourite spots, 3 Shires Head, for a brew and a bite to eat. First of all I headed out towards Whaley Bridge and picked up an old Roman road which leads around the back of Whitehall Outdoor Centre;

Deep snow up the climb gave a taste of things to come. Further up there's a tricky techy section, and some walking was done.

Once on higher ground I started to get a feel of just how windy the day was going to be;

The next section is a bridlepath leading up and over Hypothermia Hill, as I've named it (see here for an explanation). On the lower part, as seen below, deep snow covered up the boggy bits, and even though I know where the worst areas are I still managed to get a trifle stuck. More pushing.

Through a gate and up a climb. No chance of riding, the powder was knee deep in places on a short but fairly hard climb. So, progress was made by taking a few steps then dragging the bike up behind me using the loop on the Confucious bar as a handle;

Did I mention the sidewind? Look at the pogie in the photo above.
Once on the top I expected to make better progress, but just did more pushing instead;

Several times I stopped to let more air out of my tyres. I started with 3.75psi front 4.75psi rear (its quite normal to have a 1 psi difference between front and back), I finished with 2.5psi front 3.5psi rear.
HH leads down to Long Hill, the back road between Buxton and Whaley. So, after a short tarmac ride, (waving at snowplough drivers), I dropped down to Fernilee Reservoir and the Goyt Valley using a very usefully placed Unclassified Road, crossed the dam, and rode up onto a woodland fireroad for some pleasant snowy cycling. The fireroad led onto tarmac, thankfully free of black ice, and a long drag to Derbyshire Bridge. By this time it had started raining, and before long I was wet, but thankfully not cold the damp not really penetrating my outer layers. So, a decision was made to cut the ride short and when I reached Derbyshire Bridge I sheltered behind the wardens hut to drink my tea and eat my Stollen before turning left and heading home down the Old Macc Road.

I have come to the conclusion that Stollen is excellent winter biking food;

Dropping down the OMR towards Burbage got interesting, there's been a lot of 4x4 traffic making ruts in the snow which turned to ice and got covered in more snow, ready to catch out fatbike riders.

All in all, it wasn't the best snow ride that I've enjoyed, not because of the wind and deep powder, that's just good learning experience, but because of the wind driven rain. Still, better than staying in.

Paul.