A little too wet

Too slick to ride up today

I have been pretty lucky lately dispite of all the rain we have been having.  Lucky, except today.  I was watching the weather outside for some breaks.  It was raining, then it would stop.  At one point it was sunny- I actually saw some blue skies!  It was raining very lightly and I wanted to get out on the bike so I headed out.  I rode up Findley and then headed down Ferris Gulch and connected with hwy 238, turned on Williams hwy back to the house.  Findley road has a river coming down it.  I was still able to get up to the top in 38 minutes. This is a good time dispite the snow.  I couldn't pedal the last section because the snow was so wet/ slushy.  I wasn't able to get traction.  The last section looks pretty unassuming from the photo, but it is a pretty steep section that is the last push to get up to the ridge.  After the ridge I headed down into ferris gulch and then back up to the Ferris Guclch main road.  I came out right at the big rock pit and snapped a quick photo.  By then, it was starting to rain harder.  As you may guess due to the snow, it was pretty cold too. 

 

Looking to the North from just below the Rock Pit at Ferris Gulch.

There was quite a lot of snow on the main road up there.  I was going to head down panther gulch but figured I had better get off the mountain the quickest way possible.  As I headed down the slushy snow would shoot up and basically soak me.  I had to keep my speed down so that I would freeze or slide off the road.  Once I got to the bottom it was raining pretty hard.  I got on the highway and worked pretty hard to get my body temperature back up again.  It was sort of a losing battle because of the wind chill.  My hands were the only thing that was cold really.  I kept about 20 mph til provolt store and then went up wiliams hwy back to the house.  Total Ride 14.2 miles and 1 hour 20 minutes.  It would have taken much less time but I went slow down Ferris Gulch.