Just when you think all the ice and snow has gone and it's safe to stick your ice tyres back under the big pile of black rubber rings in the corner, you're on wet boiler plate ice in the woods and on your bruised bum seconds later.
Now don't get me wrong, having two weeks of ice tyre work to end 2009 and two weeks of the same to start it has been fantastic. Apart from the totally buried days and one thawish day about halfway through my local trails have been glistening white, come back with bike gleaming glory for a whole month. A month normally spent using more time hosing me, bike and faithful trail hound down than actually riding. It's been great to really get some time in on the kind of novelty tyres that only nutters or sledge fanatics keep in store too, with usage rates for my trusty Schwalbe Ice Spikers going up about 2000% this season!
Frankly though I thawt after a weekend of mild weather that the trails would now be back to regulation winter brown. Oh no, thanks to the compression of snow by walkers and riders all the singletrack in the woods is a nicely domed, slick wet strip of hard ice that's still several inches thick. Even the Spaniel was doing her best Sebastian Loeb drifts round corners today and it was only a matter of time before the grip versus speed versus space required to make the turn and stay out of the river maths failed to add up.
Judging by the thickness and sheltered nature of some patches there'll still be some skidpans lurking for a few more days too. Just long enough in fact to last till the next potential dump of winter!
Not that I'm grumbling mind as it's all making the singletrack highly comical and normal tyre choice wisdom a mockery but just be careful out there OK kids!