I went for a bike ride today, though my plans didn’t work out as I’d hoped. I was expecting some mud on the trails, so I planned on leaving home after breakfast so that the mud would still be mostly frozen. I couldn’t get my truck started because I hadn’t plugged in the engine block heater, so that set me back quite a bit. After leaving the block heater plugged in for a while, I got the truck started and drove to the trailhead on Wood Hill. It was closer to lunch time when I started riding, and the mud had thawed quite a bit. There were still some dry stretches of singletrack, and even some patches of snow, but in the muddy spots I was leaving deep ruts. When the trail crossed a gravel road, I decided to stop tearing up the singletrack and just ride the gas well roads for a while. Despite the trail conditions, it was a gorgeous day to be out riding, no matter whether it was on a trail or a gravel road. I got really muddy riding back to the truck on a dirt road–there were some mud bogs that were unavoidable. I ended up spending about half as much time cleaning the mud off my bike as I’d spent riding, but it was worth it.