I had been hesitant about heading out to McCain valley after the last couple of cold storms, as I am not a real big fan of snow riding. But it seemed like the storms had not dumped as much of the white stuff out there as I had expected, so off I went with Mr. 501, ready for some prime traction on the trails. There were some clouds in the sky when I got out there, but it was still nice and sunny at the start of my ride. A horde of people were in the staging areas, yesterday. In fact, hordes of people seemed to be everywhere, yesterday. The vehicles were overflowing at Pine Valley, and the traffic was backed up onto the freeway at the Sunrise highway exit, as people wanted to see some snow. My ride started off quite nicely, as I enjoyed the wet dirt, and some solitude on the tinier, less traveled routes. There were more riders than I am used to seeing on some of the main routes, though. Sign of the times, I guess. The bright sunshine soon gave way to a somber gray sky, that would stay with me for the rest of the day. There was no hint of snow left in the main trail area, but as I made my way to the north end of the valley, a speck or two started to turn up....and it steadily increased as I continued to gain elevation. Finally there were no more fresh motorcycle tracks, and no tracks at all (save for those of local desert critters) through the snowy areas that were getting increasingly larger and deeper. It finally got to the point that I had to make a decision to bail from my route. So far, I wasn't having any difficulties from the snow, but I have ridden in it enough to know how fast an innocently small amount of snow can turn into a real machine stopping problem. So I worked my way onward to the nearest main road that would take me directly to McCain Valley road, then headed south for a mile or two, before rejoining an abbreviated trail loop that had no snow on it. I had originally intended to do 30-35 miles, but settled for 27. Better safe than sorry. It was still a delightful afternoon of trail riding, all the way around.
