MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2018

38 ML BLUE WINTER 2018 words & photos :: Colin Field So you drank the Kool-Aid; you bought the fat bike, stoked with all the riding you’ll do this winter. Then, like anyone who has ever owned a fat bike, you tried it on your favourite trail system. And the conditions absolutely sucked. You couldn’t even get started because you couldn’t get any momentum. Your five-inch-wide tires sank into the snow and no amount of pushing, packing or pig-headed determination made a difference. And that’s when you realized: trails need to be groomed for fat bikes. We’ve all done it. The simple fact is that snow needs to be just right for fat biking. Twelve inches of fresh is not necessarily a good thing. You need a hard packed surface somewhere below your tires to get moving. And that’s why some areas are grooming trails for fat bikes. These places offer just that. SIMCOE COUNTY MOUNTAIN BIKE CLUB “We groom out of the SteamWhistle Trailhead at Seventh Line and Bass Lake Road,” says SCMBC board member Wayne Kibbler. “The grooming is done on both the north and south side of the road and approximately 20 kilometres of groomed trails are maintained over the winter. Schedule of the grooming is dictated by the weather, but we do try to go over the track at least once a week and/or after each snowfall.” scmbc.ca HORSESHOE RESORT “Horseshoe will be offering 8.5 kilometres of groomed trail through the Copeland Forest similar to last season,” says Horseshoe’s cycle and ski pro Andrew Doble. “New this year is replacing a good chunk of the double track with singletrack for a more challenging ride. We also have Norco Bigfoot 6.2 bikes available for rental; a fleet of 13 of the adult ones and five of the 24-inch wheeled ones for the kids.” horseshoeresort.com HARDWOOD SKI & BIKE “We’ve partnered with Cannondale, so we have real fat bikes this year and we have eight of them,” says marketing manager Louise Jackson. “That’s huge for us. Monday to Friday you can ride them at Hardwood and you can come rent them and take them off-site on weekends. We’ll also deliver them too. We’re also creating a Wednesday night fat bike series, a ten-week series. And also new this year is they’ll be able to ride on the snowshoe trails which are basically our summer singletrack trails, just slightly modified. We have over 11 kilometres of singletrack then, plus you’ll be able to ride them on the ski trails. We have a lit-loop too, so that’s where the fat bike series will run. We just want it to be fun and relaxed. We’re also fully [liquor] licensed now, too.” hardwoodskiandbike.ca WHEEL WELL SIX WAYS TO GET FAT FAT BIKING OPTIONS FOR NOVICE OR SPECIALIST Kyle Easby scoring some singletrack. COLIN FIELD