There are some rides that you know you’ll always remember. Riding in fresh snow at Stillwell was one of those!

Knowing that Saturday was going to be wicked cold and with the existential dread of riding indoors weighing on my soul, I started my campaign for a Saturday of trail riding early in the week. It involved making my own post in the #riding channel of Slack, but also trolling any other proposed weekend plans with “TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS” and other unhelpful content. I found that this two-pronged strategy really helped push my trail campaign forward. By Friday evening, we had a solid plan to head out to Long Island’s Stillwell Woods for some mountain biking.

When we pulled into the parking lot, the asphalt was covered in a solid layer of ice and my phone was showing that the temperature was “Feels Like 12.” I started to regret my trail campaign and found myself longing for the trainer.

But DANG, once we got going, conditions were PERFECT!!! The snow had been knocked down a bit by other bikes and snowshoers, so we weren’t necessarily making new tracks. And, it was cold enough that the snow was fully frozen and no where close to melting. Because Stillwell is relatively flat, there weren’t too many places to lose traction in the snow either. Really, it was perfect, frozen bottle aside. We even got hot and had to peel off layers!

The highlight of the ride, aside from seeing Matt wipe out a few times (love you, Photo), was the wide open field of powder. Riding around and around and around in circles and zigzagging across the field felt like floating downstream on a raft. It was pure magic!

Who knows when the conditions will line up that perfectly again. But when they do, I’ll be ready with my TRAILS TRAILS campaign!

Photos by: Matthew Vandivort