It’s finally time. Every year for the past couple years, sometime in March, I take the studs off my fat bike, thus declaring to the world, “Winter is over!!!” Invariably we end up with a big snow storm sometime in the coming weeks, but hey, a guy can dream right?

In addition to removing the studded tires I also get to watch our back yard turn from a nice beautiful white, to a dirty brownish green, that won’t be vibrant green for many, many weeks. It will then turn a golden brown because I am terrible at lawn care and really despise watering a lawn for little reason. For a few weeks though it’s glorious.

All this to say, that it’s exciting to see spring start to creep in and winter depart. We had a good solid winter this year, and I got to have a lot of fun snowshoeing and fat biking, so I’m happy. I didn’t get to visit all my winter ultra friends, but it will make next year even sweeter when we can. I also missed our usual get-away to the desert this year as well. Even though last year was a bit of a fiasco, I love that escape to warmth in February that’s become a tradition.

On the upside, we’ve gotten our gravel bikes out and it’s been a lot of fun going fast(er) again. We’ve already had a couple solid rides for the most part roads and paths are free of ice and water. Our local park doesn’t get plowed so those trails will take a couple more weeks yet to clear out, but other paths are looking quite good. It also means that I can feel better about not wearing screw shoes when running in the neighborhood. With dry roads I can just focus on a nice casual run.

Time to start planning more outdoor Spring activities!