Well I finally had a chance to get my XT out in the dirt, to make a long story short I'd been going back and forth with it to the shop for the last month and a half over absolute bs, but with that resolved, I had to take her out.

Light mods:
Since this is a bike for commuting and putting around town, I needed some sort of decent rack so I got one of the Turbo City racks, which I highly recommend. Super easy to install and super strong. In addition to the rack, my hands were getting cold and I figured if I was going to ride off road I better add some sort of handguards to protect both my hands and my levers. It's a good thing I did too because I can't even tell you how many times I went down on Sat lol. The weight of the bike was on the rack a few times and it didn't flex one bit, in fact, lifting the bike back up (something I did more times than I care to) was no problem via the factory handles or by grabbing the rack. (my arms/back/legs are sore today)

You'll also notice my GPS attached to my handlebars via a nice solid RAM mount, which was super handy both in getting me to the trail and verifying where I was on the trail with the US Park Service map. I considered printing a topo, but I didn't see much point since I was going to be riding clearly marked trails and I had a trail map which ended up being just fine. Anyway, this was my first time offroad with my XT and my second time off road ever so it was a learning experience all around.

Here's some things that I took from that trip.
- Holding freeway speeds is no problem, however when it is 28deg out since there is no fairing it is friggin COLD, drafting big rigs really takes the edge off.
- 80/20 tires are not good in mud.
- My A* Bionic knee guards totally saved my knees as they were on the ground often with the bike on top
- I really do not like riding in mud, riding on snow was ok, kinda squirrelly when headed uphill however.
- Mud makes an easy trail hard, it was almost impossible for me to get very far onto trail 5 because of it so I had to bail and stick to the less steep trails.
- Green trails are worthless, might as well ride on the sidewalk
- Blue trails were fun except for said mud and ice water puddles
- My boots are not waterproof
- I need better tires
- The handguards I installed saved my levers and hands as I ate it countless times in the mud
- Almost going over the edge in a totally remote area when completely alone was strangely amusing
- Sliding out into a mud puddle at 25mph royally sucks when it is 30deg out
- I hate mud.
- Did I say I hate mud? Give me rocks any day. The few rocky parts were awesome. I've got to find a rocky singletrack.

Bike all loaded up and ready to roll, it was a COLD morning.



Once I got into the Sac area there were a few odd things. 1- There were a TON of wild hogs everywhere, 2- it was ARCTIC cold, I don't know what they were thinking. I got so cold riding up there (135mi one way) I felt like I was going to hurl, coldest I've ever been in my life. Had to draft truckers just to stay alive thanks to no wind protection.

Quick stop before hitting the trail to make sure all was in order.


And theeeeen... freakin' ice puddles everywhere. I was obviously the first one up there.






This isn't the best picture of it, but the mud was frozen solid and actually kinda slippery. My camera died before I could get pictures of some of the other frozen mud that literally looked like it was the superman ice caves.


The parts of the trails that didn't have snow or mud or huge icewater puddles were pretty fun and scenic.




I really had to work to try to keep dry since I would have to ride back home wearing what I was wearing.


Back at home, I was a bit dirtier than when I left :)


Hardly mud bogging, but I've got some cleaning to do.



Last but not least here's a little video I recorded while riding. Sorry, I had the camera attached to my bars so it is bouncy but it works anyways I guess. I know I'm slow... second time out remember? :)