March Madness

ite den. two things: my group ride and the current snow conditions.
part one: the ride.
the group ride was fun. it was a pretty large group but yesterday's ride was slower than last week's (see First Group Ride of the Year blog entry). since it was slower, it allowed me to stay in the lead group most of the time. the winds were pretty fierce and as soon as we entered chatfield reservoir it blew, the remainder of peloton that made it this far, apart (me being in the apart field). by that part, i was already close to my truck. at my truck, the weather was so glorious by now (in the 70's), i shed my second jersey, shoe covers, and arm warmers. i tacked on more climbing miles by climbing a fairly mellow grade on a street called deer trail. i made it to the 285 junction but was so pooped out by the climbing and the winds i bailed back to my truck. it's always a fun descent when the march runoffs go across the gravelly roads-especially on the switchbacks. i tried to pedal as fast as i can as if to chase on a group to blast my legs. if left to my own devices i probably wouldn't push it this hard. i wanted to put in a 4h day but was too pooped out. i wanted to get my training in before another high-energy pacific-fed front comes pushing in sunday...
part two: the snow.
it's dumping like no other currently. living up here the conditions can get so difficult it's necessary to own a 4wd vehicle with clearance. i'm thankful that our first winter here wasn't a record-breaker like last year's. now, if i still owned my audi, it never would've made it out of our dirt road with such a low clearance. my tacoma's lovely for that reason and it also hauls a boat load of firewood. my next loveliest hillbilly tool's my stihl chainsaw, and lastly, probably the leading cause of death for underage hillbillies-the atv.
so i get gas for the atv and fire her up. not so much to explain other than riding an atv with a blade attachment. it's kinda cool though because the wind's blowing the snow sideways and my ipod's cranking a compilation of wagner's the ring series. kind of surreal.
we live on a ridge so the wind unkindly deposits massive amounts snow on the leeward facing perturbations on the landscape. what this means is, if there's a 12" dump, some places on our road will have 4 foot snowdrifts. for example, our patio (not 4' but you get my drift-no pun intended)...that's why i have to go out regularly to knock this stuff down. the following's a cut and paste of what the national weather service said about our climatological predicament for today (and tonight)

This Afternoon: Periods of snow with widespread blowing snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 30. Blustery, with a north wind between 16 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible.

Tonight: Periods of snow with widespread blowing snow, mainly before 8pm. Low around 10. Wind chill values as low as -7. Blustery, with a north northeast wind between 20 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

ahhhh. nothing like winter living (hope i can make it to work tomorrow)...