Monday, March 7, 2011

skinny tires and snow

this is where my head is today:
moab.

well, actually, it's here in gray-gloomy-waiting-for-a-snowstorm slc, and it keeps jumping onto the freeway, heading up spanish fork canyon past all those stunning and hypnotic wind turbines, out through price and 70 and into slickrock country.

this coming weekend is the skinny tire festival, a four-day event beginning with a 64-mile ride to dead horse point on saturday morning. sunday morning is a 50-mile ride along the colorado river corridor. monday is arches national park and tuesday is a river portal ride.

four years ago a friend and I hopped in her car and drove to moab for this event on a chilly (cold) friday in early march. before we left slc I bought thick biking pants with wind panels on the front and full booties, and packed up just about every warm riding thing I owned. my friend was bootie-less, and we hit every bike shop in moab friday evening, discovering them all to be completely sold out of booties, and painfully low on hats and gloves. I bought a skull cap (beanie), and kissed myself repeatedly the next day for doing so.
saturday morning warmed to about 26 degrees by the time we started our ride, my friend's feet encased in bread bags from the hotel coffee shop. at the first rest stop we warmed ourselves by a portable heater, and she bummed a pair of thicker gloves from another rider who had a spare pair, promising to return them that evening.
sunday morning was a toasty 30+ degrees, and we lunched at the top of dead horse point, perched on the rock surfaces we could find that weren't covered with snow.

this year, my favorite weather site, noaa, predicts for moab overnight lows of 35 degrees, and daytime highs about 65, mostly sunny saturday and generously sunny on sunday.

hmm.

sixty-five? sunny?

we're expecting our snowstorm later this afternoon, the snow level dropping to just a few hundred feet higher than my house. rain for me, and a few inches of snow for those higher on the bench. as evening descends and moves into pure night, somewhere between a few fingers and a handspan of snow will settle upon us.
a good chance of snow again tuesday, and then things begin to clear. the weekend here in slc looks decent, with a potential high of 53 on saturday, the overnight low only 36 or so. partly sunny. hmm. I'm ignoring the chance of snow saturday night and sunday.

playful me wants to go to moab.
practical me says it's a long drive and will cost me a bunch of money and take time away from all those other things I should be doing . . .

but snow? really? haven't we had enough? will biking season ever come?
sigh.

eenie, meenie, miney, mo . . . who all thinks I'll really go?

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