Getting Fatter!

Hola, amigos. What's up? I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but things have been pretty crazy around Rancho BDB.

See, after my crash, the combination of lack of daylight and shitty weather was keeping me from getting out and doing much at all. The cabin fever set in bad. Worst case I've ever had in years.  On a trip downstate just before thanksgiving, I actually paid $80 for a new cassette for the Hoss just so I didn't miss an opportunity to ride Hanson Hills.  I was positively climbing the walls. I even booked a trip out to Utah for Feb. just so I had an opportunity to get out of the house to look forward to. 

Late November and early December continued the trend of crappy weather conditions. Never really made a complete transition from fall to winter. I was able to feed the monkey a bit by getting out on skate skis for some XC action, but honestly- I'm just not that excited about skate skiing anymore. Not really a whole lot of new things to explore or adventures to be had. It's always the same trails, all the time.   But damn, it's a hell of a workout. And the hills on the tech trails can be pretty fun when trying to tele-turn a pair of skate skis.  

But without any crazy weekend adventures, the cabin fever continued unabated.... 

Until a lot of my friends started buying fat bikes. I've always wanted a fat bike. Stuff like this and this and this do absolutely nothing to discourage me.  But the $1600 price tag always did.  

Well, after it became readily apparent we wouldn't have any good backcountry skiing until the end of December at best, I just decided to hell with it. I would get a fatbike, no matter the cost.

Conveniently, a friend was upgrading to an even fatter bike and had a barely used one for sale. Still the most expensive bike I've ever purchased, but much less than $1600. 

And let me tell you, if you ride bikes off pavement at all and have any taste for adventure riding- go buy one NOW.  Don't make excuses, rationalizations, or what have you. It's a real game changer for winter exploration. Stuff that has been out of reach during the winter is now accessible. And plus they're just silly fun to ride no matter what.  

In the past few weeks we've been riding the bandit snowmobile trails around Calumet, the XC skiing and snowmobile trails of the Porcupine Mountains, doing 30 mile treks along the edges of the Huron Mountains and even riding up (mostly) frozen rivers in Duluth. 

Crazy, crazy fun. I almost don't even care that the backcountry skiing has been almost non existent as of late.