you know your commited when...

There has been a formula for Sunday's since the new year, load up drive, ride in some sort of inclement weather, cold hands, colder toes, laughing, and too much fun to put in to words. This Sunday was no different, well not quite. The weather here is Seattle has been quite unseasonably cold, La Ninia I am told, snow has been more prevalent than is the par here.
1st call: " there is a light dusting at my house here in Bellingham, you guys still coming?"
"yes, I committed to doing one mountain bike ride a week and I haven't gone yet this week."

2nd call: we have loaded up and are on the interstate headed north.
"ok, it really snowing, big flakes, just want you to know, still coming"
"yep, thanks, but we just might not ride for as long, but I want to get out on my bike."

As we get closer to Bellingham the weather gets really snowy, people go from driving 60 to 25, it's not that bad, but there is at least 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. Guess he wasn't kidding, its going to be something else if this keeps up.

We arrive at Kevin's house, suit up, we almost all over dress and find ourselves at some later moment shedding layers to not overheat. We start rolling out and up towards Galby. Our group grows on the way. It ended up being the largest group ride I have ever been on.

At the start to the Whatcom Falls entrance to Galbraith.

Cold weather cycling breeds creation, I would like to get a pair of the lake winter boots but until then, I have seen and tried many different means to keep the feet warm throughout the winter months. Two wool socks, wool socks and a plastic bag, old winter boots. Luke pictured above had large wool socks over his shoes, with holes in the bottom for his cleats. Yet another creative way to keep the feet warm, it seems to be a constant battle. Craig will sometimes add toe warmers at the beginning to keep his toes warm.

Kevin practicing his magic just below the towers.

Can you believe Brett has only been growing this beard since late November. The man is just a big hair follicle. When I first met him we dubbed him Bearded Brett. Guess Why?

Chris had the greatest traction, on a semi slick. We climbed a bunch and you just had to stay seated or you got no traction. Feels great when the road hits 18 or 20%

The train rolls on.

Craig has red hair, grips and tires. He is also one of the greatest human beings i have ever had the pleasure of riding with. "Bikes are the Best" is one of his most used phrases.

The view of Bellingham from the Ridge. By the end of the day it was sunny. We had an amazing day.

I got this here beauty mark. I think we all crashed at least 4 times. My pedals had the pleasure of meeting my shin in one of those falls.
We ended up riding for about 3 and 1/2 hours, it felt like more with all the grinding we had to do through the snow. I have never ridden in anything like that. The mud was frozen so the ruts just threw you all over the place, some of the sections of trial were ice, no braking allowed. We did at one point in time practice our front wheel skids.