First Snow
Sometimes the choices are too easy
Finally, winter is starting to arrive. While the temps have been cool, we have not had any snow, until yesterday that is. Some parts of NW Maine got dumped on. Out here in the Maritimes, not so much, but enough to get things rolling. I took the Mukluk out along with the new Wolves for a solid 3 hour ride, all of which was breaking trail.
Beautiful skies, with temps hovering around the freezing point meant more sweat than anything. I find that temperature range to be one of the most difficult to plan for because if your energy output goes up at all, as it does when breaking trail, you are going to sweat. The Wolves did great with only a liner sock and very light weight synthetic oversock. The boots are definitely warm, however, I am still convinced that their is a bit of design flaw.
The upper boot, and how it zips up, is just not practical for deep cold riding. As I reported earlier, it is very snug, making it virtually impossible to layer a thick sock up your ankle/calf region. The issue is not only the tightness of the fit, but also the gymnastics that you have to go through to actually get the zipper up. Today, as I said, wearing hardly any socks, I tried putting the boots on outside, in the cold, with gloves on and it was a real challenge to get them zipped up. In deep cold, with thick socks, this I believe is going to be an issue. Whether I can work around it or not, is yet to be seen.
Other than that one issue, the boots really are awesome. Very comfortable; a joy to pedal in; and not too difficult to deal with when pushing the bike, something I had to do several times today up steep hills.
