Trainers and rollers are excellent off-season training tools, so don't get me wrong here. They have one major flaw though, and that is boredom. Sitting in the basement spinning away like a hamster on a wheel. TV with the right video helps immensely, but there is still no substitute for the real thing.
Saturday, I chose to brave the chilly temperatures and met Steve out at
Island Lake for a few miles. Steve is one of the regulars on the
mysinglespeed.com board. We decided to start with a lap of the Blue loop (approx. 10 miles), and make the call on the ~5.5 mile Yellow loop afterwards.
Here we are about a third of the way through the Blue loop. Steve's on the right, I'm on the left.
We did the blue loop, were feeling good, and decided to give the yellow loop a go. Trail conditions were excellent for the season: snow was good and grippy, there were only a few small icy spots, and only one tree down (about 2 miles or so into the blue loop). The wind was only a factor in one spot, the open area by the swimming hole.
Here's your's truly at a crossing on the yellow loop.
I'm the drab green spot in the middle of the photo. Note the runner up ahead. We weren't the only crazy ones out today.
We completed the yellow loop, and decided that we had time (and energy) to do another go-round of the blue loop. When we rolled back into the parking lot, I had about 23 1/3 miles showing on the computer.
Here's a photo of Steve's dash after the ride. Note the temperature of 13deg F.
A nice small lake within the Hogbacks area. 
Looking back along the trail.
A view from the top of a ridge.
It's much steeper than it looks... basically a root staircase.
Fall line runs seem to be the norm here.
The end of the line, unless you have a horse or waders.
Another fall line run. Once again, it's steeper than it looks.
A river runs through it.
The trail next to the lake.
