Spring is in the air, I can feel it. Despite the fact that temperatures have still been way below freezing the past week, something seems a little bit different. The birds are chirping more, the sun feels warmer when it shines, and the weather report confirms that next week, it will indeed rise above freezing, …
Riding on Standing Stone Creek.
It's been a cold winter. It started out rather mild, with days in the 50s through December, but the past month or so has been brutally chilly. There have been plenty of days with highs in the single digits, and it's been regularly dipping below zero at night. The snow is also just deep enough and just …
Frozen Fat, Day 2: It’s about the comaraderie, not the competition.
When the alarm woke me Saturday morning at o-dark-thirty, I felt like I got hit by a train. My head was pounding, my stomach was queasy, and my muscles hurt. Coffee helped, as did the small amount of food I choked down because I knew I'd need to fuel up for the 30 miles of …
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Frozen Fat, Day 1: Fires and Fries.
January can be kind of gloomy. The holidays are over, there's not much going on, the days are short, and the temps are generally pretty frigid. Luckily, there's Frozen Fat, a winter fat-bike weekend full of camping, beer, bonfires, good people, and of course, plenty of riding bikes. This is the fourth year of the …
Easter.
Following in the tradition of last year, on this particular Sunday, which is to us just a Sunday like any other, Evan and I headed outside for a day on the water and in the woods, paddleboarding from the Petersburg hydroelectric dam to the 4th Street Bridge in Huntingdon (which is conveniently located behind the …
Swatara in the snow.
Early this past Friday morning, fueled by coffee and bagels, Evan and I loaded the last of the gear in the car and the bikes on the new roof rack, and set off eastbound, ready for a weekend of exploring new territory, outdoor adventures, and an evening of great live music with our friends Steve …
The ice commute.
It was early, just after dawn. I glanced at the thermometer on the porch. 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Which meant that away from the protected alcove of our cabin, it was even colder. It was just cold enough to make me second guess my decision to commute to town by bicycle this morning. I thought about …
Riding on ice.
In the past year since I tried a fat bike for the first time, my definition of mountain biking has been completely redefined, and my conceptions of what can be done on a bicycle have been reshaped time and time again. I've gone places I never would have thought to go---in the snow, along the …
Twenty (something) miles of Frozen Fat.
I awoke a little too soon after I'd gone to bed, to the sound of Dunk banging on the windows of the Subaru to ask Evan where the water was to make coffee. I extracted my arm from the warm down of my sleeping bag to reach for my phone and check the time. 7 …
One of those really great mountain bike rides.
It's been a little while since I've had a really great long mountain bike ride. The kind of ride that beats you up but makes you giddy with laughter, the kind that makes your legs burn but your body and soul feel alive, the kind that leaves you feeling exhausted yet truly satisfied and happy. Today …
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helena kotala 