The best and worst of Fatbiking

The best:

• Mountain biking continues in wintertime. 
• Um...new gear!!
• You ride more than you think without going over the bars (for the most part).
• Skidding is fair game -- Surf the downhills!
• You get first bike tracks most everywhere you go.
• You get good at 'quick dismounts' and cyclocross remounts. Usually in quick succession!
• You get good at riding very slow and un-weighting the bars.
• You are instantly cool riding a Fatbike.  Everybody just gawks at you at you and says "...nice tires!"
• It's never felt so good to clear a slight uphill.
• A 10 mile ride seems long.
• You get to ride your bike on snow!!
• You've never been so excited for 2" of fresh snow on hardpack.
• It opens up a whole nuther world of adventures.

The worst:

• You have to hike more than you think.
• If you try to shoulder your bike, you may break your collarbone.
• The bike is not flippable. However, you are.
• You always think "it'll get better around the next turn", but it usually doesn't but you keep postholing anyways.
• You rely on "the others" packing down the trail so you can ride it.
• Your bike is going to be one heavy rigid bike.
• A 10 mile ride seems long.
• When you push your bike in snow, the front tire tends to act like a plow instead of a ski tip.
• You will dismount a LOT, usually quite athletically, and tip over into the soft snow on the side of the hardpacked trail you were trying so hard to stay atop. (My favorite move is when you stick your foot out to stop your slow-motion fall but you sink into the snow anyways with said foot and fall over, filling your pogies up with snow.)
• Once you go Fat, it's hard to go back! You always want to go fatter -- regular MTB tires look absolutely puny now!

A section of the new Sugar Mag trail.

Each time i go ride my Rotund-cycle, it's like i relearn how to ride a bike. It's a different type of riding, not dissimilar to riding a singlespeed for the first time. Not better, not worse, just a different style of two wheels. Similar to a singlespeed, you have to learn to keep your momentum for the uphills, ride smoothly so the rear wheel keeps its traction, and well...be OK with hiking a lot. No way around it...hiking (or postholing?) is part of snowbiking, at least around these parts.  But what it gets you in frustration gives back 10-fold in the experience of being out on singletrack you could never ride this time of year, and cruising snowpacked dirt roads that are the approaches to your favorite backcountry ski spots. What they lack in agility they return in exploration potential.

My tracks next to a bobcat's tracks heading up a nearby summer 4x4 road.

Cars drive this in summer to get to a popular trailhead, but in winter it's a whole different place.

I usually only experience winter in the woods on skis or snowshoes.  I've been skiing a total of ONCE this year so far...yes, that sucks, but it's sucked for snow.  The fatbike has given me that exploration bug again to go out and try and ride all my old favorite trails in the wintertime and experience them in a totally unique and different way.  To be honest, I've become somewhat ho-hum with the summer riding in my area.  Yes, I know, I'm spoiled, but after living and riding bikes here for 20 years, I just 'know' it all so well! Ya know?

Not much snow on the south-facing slopes but in the shade higher up I was walking a bunch.

Building and riding the Fatbike enabled me to ride these trails in winter (even if it's mostly just the 4x4 roads) and have a different kind of fun on them all over again - like I was finding them for the first time.

The turnaround point. I had been walking and postholing for about a half-hour so I just called it quits before making it to my destination (the wilderness boundary).