Man's bestfriend

Man's bestfriend
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Monday, December 26, 2011

1st Winter 14er

I successfully summited my first winter 14er today.  Quandary Peak  14,301 on my GPS.  3 hours 56 minutes moving and another 2 hours trying to find some O2.  I still didn't think this was a difficult as cycling up Mt. Evans on my road bike.
 300 feet to go and definitely the toughest.  The wind almost blew me over a couple of times.  The ridgeline hiking up was absolutely awesome.
 The view walking back down wasn't too bad either.  On my hike back down I started wondering why nobody has invented the Mountaineering Slide.  It would make the walk back a lot more fun and a heck of a lot faster.


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Cold Feet

When I was a kid I froze my feet pretty bad playing hockey outside.  I remember they were frostbitten enough that for the next couple of days my toes felt like they were on pins and needles.  You know the feeling,  right?   Well, the hardest part of winter activities for me as an adult has been the dreaded cold feet.  But I believe that I have finally figured it out.  I was reading the blog wintertrekking last week and I came upon the vapor barrier method of keeping your feet warm.  This idea wasn't new to me but this particular method was somewhat different.  With this method you wear a very thin pair of polypro socks next to your skin.  Next, you take a thin vapor barrier and  wear it over your polypro socks, then you wear your insulation layer of wool sock over the first two layers.  The theory is that your feet sweat until they the socks are saturated then they stop sweating.  Finally, I added thermal heat packs into the toes of by boots and I'm good to go.  It is also very important to have boots that are at least 1-2 sizes too big for extra air space.  You can't have cramped toes or your toast, or should I say frozen.  Generally my feet get cold anytime below 40 degrees F., but the last two rides were the temperature as been in the teens and my toes have been awesome.  If your one of the dreaded cold feeters, give this method a try and let me know your results.   

Happy Trails.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Winter Riding

Tis the season for layers, layers and more layers.  Yes, winter riding is finally here and the Minnesota River bottoms are in pristine shape after the seasons first four inches of snow.  Today Josh and I crossed paths with a group ride of at least 25 Fat bike riders.  We decided that the fat bike scene is beyond the trend stage and is now here to stay.  You used to wonder if you would see any other riders who was as crazy as you, now it is just a matter of how many you'll see.   Hopefully this isn't a trend and we aren't always the first ones  making new tracks. 

Happy Trails.