Escape the cold, and the wintry conditions of Sanpete County, where we are spending Christmas. We headed to the closest place without "much" snow...the San Raphael Swell.
How "much" snow was the big question of the day. Would Andy and I get there only to find too much, or harldly any? That question seemed to be answered as the day wore on. It was tooooo much! At first, when our legs were fresh it seemed like not a big deal, but as the hours ticked by, the constant soft trail, sand and snow wore us down. We needed an escape from our escape.
Dinka wasn't bothered by our slow pace. She would routinely look back to see if we were still coming. Then she'd turn and move ahead, effortlessly, her 12 pounds floating from rock to sand to snow to rock.
It wasn't long after this spot, that I suddenly found my-self with only one pedal. The threads were badly stripped and it was touch and go whether we'd get it back in the crank arm or not, especially since we only had my Leatherman Supertool to work with and this particular pedal had no allen key on the pedal shaft. I was lucky, Andy filed out the boogered threads with the file and then got the pedal started back in...luckily straight!
Calling this a "ride" is being a bit optimistic. We rode some, we walked a lot. We marveled at the bleeding rocks, and the maze like trail that seemed to never end.
The mountain ranges seemed to at once be far away, and then suddenly right on top of us, as the light changed with the passing clouds.
After 5 hours, we came upon our last chance of escape...and with no shame we happily took it.
OUT! Escape!
We crunched our way back toward the truck, our drive-trains wearing with every sandy pedal stroke. But happy to be pedaling at all. Happy to not be pushing a worthless bike with a missing pedal.
