Big wheels, Frozen Trails and Holiday Cheer

I was more than a little disappointed this morning when a potential car-full of would-be CX racers sublimated into the ether, leaving me to either face an hour of solo driving to go race a silly bike in freezing weather or do something else, like go back to bed. I chose the latter. It was not long, however, before the riding bug got all up in my gym shorts and an acceptable alternative plan was hatched, involving the reassembly of Jack Hammer (the rigid 1x9 650b MTB) and a couple of hours of singletrack riding with Seth (who, unlike Jack, is a real person). This brings me to my point:

There are lots of reasons to like the holidays (some of those reasons have frosting, others have gravy), but more than the holidays, there's something sublimely satisfying and utterly breathtaking about experiencing the outdoors on the threshold of a long, hard winter. The cold rarefies the air and desaturates all the world's colors, leaving the senses to the crispness of the frozen path underfoot and the peaceful silence of a forest curled up to sleep--by contrast you feel that much more alive. When you're lucky you'll ride like it too. If there was anything that could have quashed my disappointment over a race-day aborted, it was a morning tour of a chilling lake by way of a ribbon of dirt.

Tomorrow anyone?

Edit: Almost forgot Seth's quote of the day...

Seth: [after his third mechanical of the ride] "Ok, I think I've finally got everything working."

Wrench: "You'd better knock on wood while you have the chance."

Seth: "I'm bound to hit a tree eventually."