The tale of possibly the coldest mountain bike spin for a long time...where to start? The plan for today was to get on the Wicklow Way and go as far as we can. The lesson has been learned: plan is one thing, to make it happen is another one.
The first thing I had to realize this morning was the very cold temperature. I looked out the window and I seen nothing but ice everywhere. After I got up at 6 am and had my lovely breakfast then I was scraping ice off the car as a warmup session. Job done, let's go to the Palmer's Pub carpark where our meeting point was.
Shortly after I got there the car got nice and warm so I knew it'll be a real challenge to get out to the sub-zero conditions.
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| Yeah! Feeling comfy in the warm car! :) |
All the lads started to arrive too shortly after, so it was time to get ready. Got changed quickly and after about 10 minutes all of us were ready to go in the freezing and still dark winter morning.
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| All good to go |
The first and far the most important thing for me was to get warm (as much as it can be achieved in -2, -3 °C) and stay warm. I think I put on all the winter clothing that I found at home. The main issue on the bike for me is getting the feet and hands extremely cold, it must be some sort of blood-circulation problem but it is killing me every winter. So I put on my pair of SealSkinz socks and a SealSkinz + windproof double gloves combo. Turned out later it was essential though! :)
So, 8 of us left the carpark shortly before 8 am and started our long journey accross the mountains towards Glendalough. We got warmed up quickly enough on the steep Kilmashogue climb and by the time we got up to the end of it the sun came up as well. It was absolutely amazing!
The conditions were tough but it got even more tough when we hit some of the real rocky sections of the trail. All the puddles were solid ice and needless to say about the surface of the rocks. Was lovely but quiet challenging at some places. But after all the extrem icy stuff we could relax a bit on the fire road climbs.
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| Waiting for the guys to re-group before we kept going |
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| That smile was frozen on my face...very cold but happy time on the bike. Just keeping up the good faith! :) |
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| Quick group photo and off we went |
We started to settle into some lovely and quick pace and got closer and closer to the spectacular Powerscourt Waterfall. It is a tough enough climb to get up there but it worth it every time indeed.
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| Still stunning view! |
After we passed by the waterfall the consistency of the group started to drop a bit and we just started to spend more and more time with re-grouping. That's fine, but not the best to stand around too often and for too long in freezing cold weather. At that point all of us started to feel the cold and we made the decision to turn back home instead of keep going. So we did get as far as Djouce and there we cut off the trail and hit the tarmac road that leads back through Enniskerry. From there we got back home in no time. To be honest I got back home on my own 'cause the lads stopped to have a coffe in Enniskerry but I was pretty cold so I rather kept going to stay as warm as I can.
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| Back at the carpark after nearly 3,5 hours |
We cut the spin short but I think it was a good decision considering the temperature. We have done 46,9 km under 3 hours and 25 minutes. The total elevation gain was 1312 m and the temperature stayed below 0°C for most of the time.
check the details of the full spin on Strava.
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| The map of today's spin |
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| Elevation / speed graph |
Let's describe this mountain bike spin with couple of words here: great, cold, fantastic, tough, special. I had great time on the bike once again, I loved every bit of the spin altough I lost faith couple of times when I hit some of the nasty icy patches along the rocky sectors. Fun, fun, fun! :)
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