Of course, Sean had a mountain bike ride in mind as a substitute. "How about the ride up to Soldier's Meadows?" he asked. "No way am I trying to get most of the way to Winchester up the back side of Craig Mountain in what 10" of snow?" was my tactful reply. I remembered several years ago trying to cross Mt. Misery with about 3 feet of snow at the top, and I'm too smart to repeat that experience!

He was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't get on the icy roads, but I did agree to do a quick test ride, call everyone, and if conditions were OK, ride the bike path to Asotin and then maybe Maguire Gulch- we had fun there in a bit of snow several years ago. I made a quick ride through the neighborhood and then gave Sean and Corrie a road report- "about 2" of snow and the bottom layer is slushy"- that means generally safe (ice free) but a bit sloshy. When I called Corrie with that report he suddenly remembered having invited a friend over and was "unable to join us"! Chris had his own snow to ride in! Sean said "Great, I’ll meet you under the Southway Bridge in 15 minutes." "15 minutes to cycle from your house down in the snowy conditions" I thought and said, "I’ll see you in 45 minutes!" 50 minutes later High-Tech Sean arrived at the bridge with only tights covering his wet legs while natural fiber loving Largent had nylon rain pants protecting his tights! Without fenders or even a back rack Sean's back side was absorbing a lot of snow melt water- read that as COLD. He was already talking about my starting the gas guzzler and driving to the Orchards for a ride in the traffic on the icy streets up there which would also give him a chance to put dry pants on, but I don’t do icy streets!

Two inches of snow gives a very different experience to the ride to Asotin, making it a fairly good workout, but when we arrived I acknowledged I was willing to tackle Maguire Gulch. High Tech Sean said no way- with his well ice-watered back side he was ready to go home, so my anticipated 80 mile ride was recorded only as 13.6 miles in 1:32 but I did note it as a “snow” ride. Count on seeing Sean in the latest and greatest snow clothing on the next snow ride!