I received this piece of breaking news in a message from Chris this morning. More details are pending. The race will start at the lodge, climb Crystal Cruise, cross the top, and drop down Moose. Since I was already planning to ride in the Kelly Canyon area today, I was curious to take a look at the race course, particularly the descent down Moose. I have ridden that descent many times including in the old days of the Kelly Canyon Mountain Bike Race, but never in snow in the dead of winter.
I did not attempt to follow the race course up the mountain for several reasons. I do not know where Crystal Cruise is and was too lazy to investigate. Plus I did not want to be riding uphill against skier traffic, and I was interested to see how far the grooming goes on the spur road that runs south from the Y Junction. It was fairly warm and foggy when I started with about 2-3 inches of wet heavy snow on top of a base of moderate quality. From the Y-Junction, the grooming continues about two miles south and east, eventually stopping at a fairly random point. I returned with the plan of climbing to the top via the gate on the east boundary of the ski area which leads to the radio tower. Many of you will remember this as part of the old MTB race. Beyond the gate, the grooming was substantially older. I deflated both tires and was able to grind it out for quite a ways, but nowhere near the top. The snow got too soft and too deep.
At this point, the best option for plan B seemed like a climb to Morgan Summit, a descent to the logging road which returns on Buckskin Morgan Ridge, and a drop into Kelly Canyon from the north like we did about four weeks ago. A rain-snow mix was falling as I started toward Morgan Summit. By the top, it had turned into a heavy snowfall. Just before the logging road which returns along the ridge, there is a gate on the main road which was closed with snow almost to the top of the gate and no grooming beyond that point. I had assumed that the grooming that was in place on the day of the fat bike demo would be maintained for the entire season, but from the appearance of the gate, I would say it must have been a one-time-only event.
As I returned to the resort, snow was still falling fairly heavily mixed with about an equal amount of rain. By that point, I had already been out for quite a while and I was starting to get cold and wet. I entertained the idea of finding another way to the top and riding Moose down but only for an instant. That will be a project for another day. Since I did not actually preview the race as I planned, I can only speculate as what it will be like. The climb is likely to be a walking speed suffer-fest unless conditions are really exceptional. I think the decent of Moose in snow would be pretty fun as a casual or adventure ride, but I expect it to be pretty precarious in a racing context.
I did not have a terrible time today by any means and I had the luxury of riding in an area completely free from snowmobile traffic. But all things considered, I think Lyon Creek is probably a better starting point for a local fat bike ride than Kelly Canyon.
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