Waitsfield Gap

Randy and I did another snow ride - this time with 1-2 inches of fresh snow. We met at South Hill - rode up Moretown Mtn road over the Moretown Gap. Mostly frozen dirt with a few bare ice patches. Flew down the other side into Devil's Washbowl - which had surprisingly been plowed sometime this year. We then rode to the end of Bear Mt Rd and got on the VAST trail over Waitsfield Gap. This would have been ok but only two snow machines had been on it and that was about two storms ago. Here is a great shot of Randy hitting a surprising stream crossing:

Coming down the other side was a blast.  I made a little movie of Randy crossing one of many ice patches:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP6hiGi3OBw

We then hit Floodwoods road for about 20 feet then got on Elwin Neil's VAST trail - awesome down hill to Pony Farm,  Then a mellow ride home.  A completely normal ride despite the 20'F temp and snow and extra layers and cold feet and frozen water bottle.  Bike remarkably clean for a 18 mile mountain bike ride.  Just a krummholz of snow off the bottom bracket.

stats:

total ascent 2500 ft
max elevation 2208 ft
max speed 34.1 mph
distance 18 miles
moving time 2:13 stopped: 31:18
8.1mph avg 6.6 total ( we had to walk a mile or so)
Like they say - every mile on snow is equal to two.