Tag: Bicycles

Yesterday I attended Day of the Victory of 9th May celebration in Yekaterinburg : there were lots of people, especially at morning and daytime. At morning it was quite cool, but on the entrance into city weather became real mayish. In the whole city there were different events and concerts went on, center of Yekaterinburg was closed for cars and was given to pedestrians and bicycles riders. Most of people were located in historical square, central squares and large parks, where concerts went on and on large screen war-times movies were shown.

First I visited 1905 year square, then rode to Mayakovskiy Park, from it to Black Tulip, after it rode over October Square and then again into CPCaR Mayakovskiy. There are places, where I can ride on the bicycle and for a whole day concerts went on. I wished to stay till evening and look on the fireworks, but closer to 8 p.m. o’clock and sunset it started to be colder and inner felling suggested to me, that at evening and closer to night it will be even colder and in light clothes on high speed, especially away from city and in a low-altitude areas, it’ll be real cold. If I’ll stay till fireworks, then on the way to home at night beginning I’ll complete freeze, so at 8 o’clock before sunset I rode to home, receiving holiday impressions and positiveness and cheerfulness charge till next event.

At evening temperature fell down quite strong and on high speed in low-altitude areas of Polevskoy highway hands were blown by wind quite strong. All in all I arrived at home without problems, but next time in such rides, when closer to evening and beginning of night it will be still ( or already ) cold, I’ll take with me additional warm clothes. Now I’ll more frequently visit Yekaterinburg and will use these days for a full extent – its enough from me of loneliness in the mountains, I received, what I rode there for, periodically I’ll continue to ride to mountains to stay in fit, but I’ll not invest my whole life into loneliness in wilderness. Mainly it’s better to be closer to civilization and society. This is all for today, stay in the broadcast.

You can see additional photos here : Day of the Victory celebration in Yekaterinburg at 9th May of 2016 year on the bicycle.

At this Sunday I rode to Shunuth for exercise, preparation to competitions and for adaptation to clipless pedals. At morning and day weather was changeable : rain downpours alternated with bright Sun, a couple of times I drenched and then dry on the wind and Sun; after rides at Winter, drenching at temperatures above zero do not disturb anymore. The main thing is that there is warm and no frosts and there is ability to ride freely. Road to Large Lavrovka is still flooded, in many areas there are large puddles and soft ground; these clay areas, that seemed unrideable previous year, are rideable : somewhere there is ability to walk on feet, carrying bicycle on the shoulder and walking on more or less solid road sides, and somewhere to ride on the bicycle itself, moving on springs beds, washed clay off down to stones. After clay areas there is good ground-stone road, on which there is ability to ride even after rain, it leads up to field near Large Lavrovka and goes further North to village Krasnoyar; road to it is much better, than to Polevskoy.

Field is partly flooded, but road in some places is rideable on the bicycle, ground in the forest mainly still wet and soft and there is ability to only walk on it on the feet. On the fields up to turn to uphill to Shunuth somewhere there is ability to ride on the bicycle, somewhere to only walk on the feet, but after turn everything is flooded, crossing the road 2 m wide river flows, everything is flooded around it and from the mountain rivers flow. It seems, that not all snow is melted on Shunuth and these areas will be flooded and unrideable for around 2 – 3 weeks, somewhere at the middle of May there’ll be ability to ride to mountain and see what road is. Now even after rainfalls, if rivers do not flow from Shunuth, I’ll be able to ride to mountain through clay areas.

From this place I rode home, it is good to ride whole road from Large Lavrovka to asphalt under Sun light; by evening weather became more or less sunny, rainfalls downpours stopped and it became warm enough. Clipless pedals is a good thing : I can ride now on 1 gear higher on the whole distance, can support constant high speed, even into hills and on wet ground and stony areas, and do not tire, doing this, at all, much better control bicycle and my feet do not fall off from pedals on high speed. The main thing is to rotate pedals right and evenly, when one leg presses the other pulls up and this way load on legs is much less; also there is ability ( and necessity too ) to push forward and pull back, providing even pedaling.

Without problems and fast I managed to asphalt, on it to Polevskoy and then home. Soon competitions will start and there is already ability to ride to Yekaterinburg for participation in bicycles tours with other people, life begins again.

You can see additional photos here : Waterfalls to Shunuth.

At last it is slightly easier on work, freezes are passing and after more than 1 month of work without holidays and with half-sleepless nights, I managed to go to ride in forest to the mountains, exercise my legs and relive myself from winter freezings. This time I rode not alone and agreed to ride to Old Man Rock and middle and northern rocks of Shunuth Mountain with 3 local skiers and bicycles riders. Part of them in technical and equipment areas and in physical training too were not completely prepared for such ride, so, we agreed, that everybody will look on their own strengths and other factors and decide for themselves how far they’ll be able to ride and walk to Shunuth.

They are riding, joking and laughing – do not know what awaits them ahead; this exhaust very much and knocks down psychological and physical tune to overcome the things, that are ahead; because here not jokes and joy are needed, but mostly sternness and even hardness are, otherwise psychology will stop and turn back there, where weather and conditions allow and there is ability to go further. In result : as soon as asphalt ended up and potholes with puddles and snowy mass in some areas started – strong words on Summer-time road tires or with weak physical exercising started to sound aloud in the forest, I did not heard them too much, because not much can be heard from so far behind, but sometimes they were reaching me from a distance. Then two of adventurers understood, that they’ll not be able to ride any further, than Large Lavrovka village, somebody due to technical state of their bicycle, somebody due to weak physical state, but both mostly due to psychological and physiological tune. Two of those, who rode to Shunuth Mountain, even smoked : this kills, but here lungs, heart, neural system and muscles are needed, so, they should free themselves from such killing habit or only dream about long-distance rides, because in really long trips they’ll fall down from bicycles. Further we rode with local bicycle-skier Andrey. We agreed, that we will wait those, who lag behind, near Large Lavrovka, but they rode too slow and we were not able to wait for them for too long, because we had long and difficult way ahead and it the same in a returning trip, and Sun sets at this time at 7:30 p.m., so, we were not able to stay on one place for 30 minutes or longer, cooling down and freezing. All in all, they made right decision to not ride any further, because the hardest part is ahead and they would not withstand this.

After Large Lavrovka on the field there is a rolled down snowmobile road goes on and there is ability to more or less walk on it, however legs and bicycles periodically went knee deep or even higher in the snow; near cordon we slightly strayed on the snow-filled roads with drenching pants knee high and even higher and filling boots with melting snow; there was even wish to turn back there and return home, if there was no road, because in the snow drifts with bicycles we would got stuck; but away from cordon on the fields near it there are good rolled down roads go on, so we walked further. On the fields snow is the most loose, so it was the most hard to walk on them, in the forest it is much more dense and solid, so we walked freely there and there were even ability to easily push bicycle nearby. Andrey placed his 16 kg down-hill bicycle shortly after large field near cordon, I raised my 11 kg MTB around to half of a Konovalov Ridge height and then placed it too near tree in the forest to wait for our returning back, when road started to be much more steep and not so rolled-down, further we walked much faster on the light. This time snow-mobile road is much more packed and leads much further, than in January, we walked to North-South road and turned North on it; then arrived to sign “Strictly protected nature area Shunuth-Rock Mountain” and to turn to Old Man Rock : hope arose, that we will reach it : now there are around 500 m up to it, now there are 300, we already managed to Konovalov Ridge passage and from the West, without protection of the mountain, wind started to blow; but not reaching 200 m to the Old Man Rock snow-mobile turned South and further covered with melting snow road laid ahead of us, on which we fell in snow-drifts up to the stomach level, further there was ability to move only by crawling on the snow, but even so hands and legs periodically went into it without reaching bottom; so, even those 200 m on such road would took of us 2 – 3 hours of crawling there and back the same and completely drenched our clothes + we wanted to ride at least part of road from Large Lavrovka village while there is still dusk above the forest, so that we would not walk on feet whole path to asphalt road. We checked road to the South for approximately 100 m, but it did not turned West to Old Man Rock, so we decided to return home from here : further I’ll ride into such trips only without snow, to not depend on snow-mobiles whims and to not turn back after such 50 – 55 km in 200 m away from the chosen target.

Returning slightly back : there is ability to say, that in his eyes and on all face view, it was clearly visible, that it is hard for him on the fields with bicycle, he has strengths and physical exercising, but his psychology after jokes, laughing, songs and illusions about “to lite some bonfire, to cook some food and to sit and talk” stood in a shocked state from what is going on, and wishes to turn back or walk further were fighting inside of him. I encouraged him as much, as I could : “After this you’ll had what to remember, you’ll be able to tell to your grandchildren how you walked to Shunuth Mountain on the snow in April,” – “There is a Konovalov Ridge ahead, Old Man Rock and Shunuth are peaks of it,” – “Around 4 km are left,” – “3,” – “There’ll be small river, crossing road, it can be jumped over,” – “Here is it,” – “Further there’ll be North-South road, we’ll walk North on it,” – “Then we’ll meet ‘Strictly protected nature area Shunuth-Rock Mountain‘ sign, we’ll walk West from it,” – “Here is it, now 500 m – 1 km to the West and we will arrive to Old Man Rock sign and then to rock itself,” – “In the face wind started to blow from the West, so we arrived to pass of a Konovalov Ridge and it is already close,” … I hope, that this helped him a little, but in any case : fighting goes on inside human himself or herself and human will pluck up a courage and will walk so much, how far weather and conditions allow to go, when walking any further can have consequences to his or hers life and health, or will turn back much earlier and go home. To his credit it can be said : he has physical training and ability to withstand and walk through all this. From one side : when I walk and ride alone – it is easier for me, because I lead only myself and I just switch on movement forward and walk further; however, with other people in such situations they move not on their own, they are walking there, where I lead them, and, if they’ll be left alone, then they can turn back and walk home, and this is slightly harder, because I lead not only me, but other people too; however, if there are other peoples nearby, then this stimulates me to rotate pedals and ride much faster and not just freely ride, look around and admire views and fresh air, and the same way on the uphill path to the mountain. So, all this have its pluses and minuses and it is useful to ride this way and the other.

We ate and drunk some tea near Old Man Rock, to replenish strengths and nutrition before way back home; it is much easier to walk from the mountain, here is a North-South road, then turn to East, here is my bicycle, small river, crossing road, here are fields near cordon and Andrey’s bicycle; and further second larger field lays, we sweat on it, then in the forest near cordon road is much easier and we walked through it without a problems and arrived to large field near Large Lavrovka. During day snow melted on it much more and became much more loose, so even those 500 m with frequent legs and bicycles goings into snowdrifts exhausted us very much, so we managed to the exit from it quite tired, then small rest with bicycles technical maintenance followed, ahead is walking via quite flooded road with snowy mess and potholes on it up to village and entrance to rolled down road near it.

Near Large Lavrovka even in the ending dusk on melting road with fresh snow cars and bicycles tracks were clearly visible, so there was ability to more or less ride on it. After 30 km walking on the snow in heavy winter boots, pushing bicycle nearby and periodical pulling it and myself from falling into snowdrifts knee or higher deep, my legs started to exhaust quite much, during riding on the bicycle it was not felt, but further on the clay areas there was no ability to ride, at light time there is ability to ride there, but in the darkness bicycle on such potholes and snowy mess often stuck and slips from one side to the other. So, on these 12 km of walking it started to switch me off and often we made stops to rest, take off exhausting and activate again; there were even wish to take some fir tree branches, go to sleep in forest ( thank you to the weather there were 0 – +2 degrees on Celsius above the forest ) and ride all this mess at morning with Sun-light on the bicycle, to not exhaust so much. For all that walking on feet on such distances in such conditions – is not my kind of sport, it is much easier for me to ride 150 – 200 km on the bicycle, even on the ground roads and trails in forest, I almost do not tire from this, than to walk for 40 km. So, next time I’ll ride in such journeys only without snow or with its 1 – 2 cm thickness in the first half of October, when there is ability to ride on the bicycle in the forest, to not invest so much time and strengths into walking on the feet. And next time I’ll take with me more food with meat, because carbohydrates, of course, give energy, but after so long and intense work there is need in complete feeding, to walk such distance, if needed. To Andrey’s credit : he prepared in this area better, then I, also he took with him replacing warm and dry socks, next time I’ll account this experience.

The most interesting was ahead : while we rode and walked to Shunuth, Heavens’ Manna – asphalt almost completely melt and became dry, as soon as clay area ended and it began : strictly straight line separated snowy mess from good and smooth asphalt, as soon as I sat on the bicycle, started to rotate pedals and started to feel cohesion of tires with the road and speed : all my exhausting and pain passed at once, and what “To stay in the forest for the night” : “To home!” – after this, for sure, I’ll rode there. Closer to night it started to freeze and rear shifters of both of us froze completely and turned into single-speeds, so, periodically transmissions were not optimal, but this did not disturbed us at all and we just rotated pedals to home; also on rims and bushings of both of my wheels by around 0.5 kg of ice froze up, so it was harder to spin them up, then without it, but this did not disturbed any much too.

On one of the crossroads on the entrance to Northern part of Polevskoy we said “Good bye” to each other till our next meeting and went further independently, I arrived to home at 2 hours o’clock of night : everything to dry, wash myself, eat food and go to sleep. Next : continuation of the trainings in the city, reconnaissance of the roads and preparation to the competitions in the rides to mountains; at Spring, when everything will melt and more or less dry and wood ticks will calm, we will for all that manage to Shunuth : Old Man Rock and its middle and northern rocks, because to ride and to walk 50 – 55 such km and turn back in 200 m away from Old Man Rock : not very interesting, it is very useful to breath fresh air, to be on nature and exercise legs and whole organism, but there is a large desire to arrive to set target. While wood ticks are very active, on trainings in rides to Shunuth I’ll ride only on ground and stony forest roads and will not turn to grassy ones to rocks to not cling dangerous blood-suckers. At this Summer, at beginning of June I’ll ride to Taganay, there are plans to ride to other mountains, but we’ll see how ride to Taganay will go on and what load will be on the work and it’ll be seen, maybe, these plans will be adjusted slightly. Plus : main marathons, part of XCOs and part of other competitions of this season. This is all for today, see you on the next event.

You can see additional photos here : additional photos of ride to Konovalov Ridge and Old Man Rock in April of 2016 year.

First time I did not wanted to write anything about this, but later decided to write to solidify conclusions. I rode to see is there a road to Large Lavrovka and to look what is going on after it in terms of a way to Shunuth mountain. It is periodically cleared up to village itself and snow solidified so, that it is rideable on the bicycle; on the way to Large Lavrovka clearings in the clouds started to emerge and clear bright sky was visible through them. When I reached village : “I’ll ride to field near cordon, will breath fresh air and will turn back home,” – through the field only tracks of heavy timber transport ( which rode here around 1 – 2 weeks or even 1 month ago, snow on it is very solid and it is easier to walk on it, than through the snowdrifts nearby ) and snowmobile ( snow on which is very loose, so I walked on the timber transport tracks ) lead on. By that time sky cleared completely and Sun filled everything with light, which with its low height above horizon and frozen air created picture of light around and everywhere. On the turn to cordon to the north, timber transport rode further to the West and only snowmobile tracks, on the not completely covered with snow road, led to the North, it is easier to walk on it, then through the snowdrifts, but for riding on bicycle snow is too loose and too deep. On the field after cordon people rode some circles, I walked on them to the Western side of a field, from which there is no road further, in the Eastern direction I saw something like a road and walked there through the waist-deep snow; reaching it I saw bridge and big tube : “This buzzing is not without a purpose,” – it means there for sure road should be.

It is so : it is not completely covered with snow and snowmobile tracks are located on it – this gave a hope, that it leads to the Shunuth itself and I’ll see a mountain today. Recesses of roads-rivers have small amount of snow and it is relatively easy to walk on them, around 200 meters from river, crossing the road, there is another one and snowmobile turned to South here; there is need to walk through snow-drifts from here : “I walked so far and almost came to the mountain, I do not want to turn back now and will continue my way on the feet.” In some areas there are footprints of a horse or elk, for deer and roe they are too big and massive – not many walk this way to the Shunuth at winter time.

There are lots of energy in the mountains, stopping on the one place to make a breath and rest for a while, through the heart beating, there is ability to hear that under layer of snow and ice there is still water gurgling. “You are entering area of paid parking near Shunuth,” – I placed bicycle on the parking, across the road, sticking it into the snow, so that it will not fall and will not slide to the sides and it will be easier to find it on the way back, paid with my bank card in the terminal, terminal encouragingly winked pip-bip : “Payment is accepted, have a nice day,” – and walked further with my bag with the food … Around 1 – 1.5 hours have passed : “If after this another turn there’ll be no South-North road, then I’ll turn and walk home,” – voila : South-North road. On it I walked for another 200 – 300 meters to the North, I did not walked to the South, because I already knew, that I have no need to walk there today, somewhere there another Granddad-stone rocks are located, but I’ll search for them when snow will melt completely. Old man rocks were in around 1.5 km of walking, but there are very deep snowdrifts and after 12 km in the snowdrifts in 3 pairs of pants and heavy winter boots, 5/6 of which I carried my bike under armpit, my legs were exhausted so much, that were ready to tell to me : “Hey, man, you a cowboy, you jump, we will lay here and rest for a while and wait for you,” – and part of my mind hinted to me, that I have the same distance ahead to home, let it be downhill, but it is with the bicycle on the shoulder through the snowdrifts. So, way to it would took another 1 – 1.5 of a hour and I would came to it in a complete darkness, common sense hinted to me, that there is no need to climb alone in the darkness on the ice and snow covered rocks in 40 – 50 km away from the city and it is better to meet bicycle before complete darkness, otherwise I can search for it for a long time.

Bicycle stood there, where I left it, I took it under armpit and carried through the snow. At evening time, alone, walking from the Shunuth : I was so exhausted, that had no forces to be afraid and feel jitters and anxiety, but if something like that tried to come close to me, then I said to myself : “Everything, will, be, alright,” – and walked further. Stars shined very brightly, they do not shine so strong in the city, its illumination eats their beauty; Orion on the South-East, Lyra almost vertically up and other constellations : they are so bright, that light almost like projectors. Closer to field near cordon clouds started to cover the sky, partially it is for the best : at least warmth of a day will not fly too fast in the upper layers of atmosphere. In the snowdrifts convulsions started to appear in the right calf muscle, I stretched and worked it through and on the more clear passages freely walked home. I walked footprint in a footprint and did not turned anywhere from the tracks, all other roads are covered with the snow, so this time I did not strayed in the forest and at once reached field near Large Lavrovka.

In the darkness there, where I freely ride on the bicycle at the daytime, often there is need to walk on feet, because road is visible only in the outlines, details are not visible : where here are hummocks or depressions, filled with a loose snow, in result most of a way from Large Lavrovka to the clay area I walked on feet. Brain, unable to fully comprehend what is going on, tried to switch off; it also tried to make a sabotage and mutiny on the ship and switch off legs also, but understanding of that, in this case there will be need to stay at night in the forest and at -8 degrees on Celsius this is not so interesting, as at 0, hold it from doing this. So, I had to stop periodically, locate my arms on the handlebar and half-sleep for 5 – 10 minutes, to not fall into sleep completely and not to start to overcool and give some rest and recover to brain and legs.

From the village in Polevskoy direction car rode, I walked further. After some time light of another one car showed up and it stopped nearby. Without any questions people greet me and offered to bring up me to the city : I do not know whether I wold stopped car by myself and asked to bring me to the city, probably, I would walked to beginning of asphalt road and rode from there on the bicycle : there is ability to ride on such road cover even at night time, I did it many times on the way from Berezovaya mountain and on the Polevskoy highway. But anyway : thank you to the guys for bringing me up to the city, without this way to home would took 2 – 3 – 4 hours more and only by these hours of night I would came to my home; once more I am convinced that there are normal people – this encourages hope and optimism.

Here are the conclusions : in case of vital necessity I am able to ride to Shunuth even at January time : now I know this, but making this for a pleasure in January and December is too much : such months are completely not rideable for such trips. Urals weather is changeable : at the morning there can be forecasts, that for a whole day there’ll be only -4 – -3 degrees on Celsius, but everything can change quickly and to evening and night time temperature can easily go down to -15 – -20 or even lower : in this case I would received lots of feel and impressions and for sure there would have been need to ask somebody in the cordon or in the Large Lavrovka village for are sleep in a home and negotiate with local people for somebody to bring me to city with them at morning. There is ability to ride to Shunuth up to the end of October, maximally up to the end of November, and then only from the middle of February; December and January are months of training and not far rides near city, when frosts are not so strong. Now here will be sportive stimulus to rotate pedals more intensively to ride, to walk would be more precise, to Shunuth at the middle of February; hope that snow will solidify there more and it will be easier to walk on it. I do not regret about anything and received my portion of pleasure and feel. So, now here will be only work and training, next time I’ll go in to such long-distance ride into the forest at the middle of February. The day begins to be longer, at 5:57 here are dusk and still relatively light, instead of complete darkness at 24th December. See you in the next bicycle adventures!

You can see additional photos here Additional photos of ride to Shunuth mountain in January 2016.

Found at last White Stone, rode to it through “Friendship” collective garden; only city area is rideable on the bicycle in this direction, further on the way there is need to lead it on the side or carry on the shoulder. Snowmobile and quad bike tracks lead to the West : somewhere through the forest, somewhere on the snowy roads; on the way I passed through Gremiha river, it is 2 – 2.5 m wide near the road, but to the side in around 100 m there is icy bridge, through which I walked with the bike on the other bank and to the technics tracks again. Walking on them I came to wide glade for high voltage electric line, walked on it in the North-West direction to the crossing with Gremiha river again and East-West glade and moved through it to the White Stone : it leads directly to the mountain roots. In some places there are unfrozen puddles and small pools.

On the way I first met 2 skiers, they told to me that ski track leads to the White Stone directly from ski base, near which I exercise myself, and another 4 skiers after them, snowmobiles pave tracks through the snowdrifts and skiers move on them, so I walked not through the waist deep snowdrifts, but on the easily walkable small road. It has small uphill tilt, that is similar to the way to Shunuth, whereas Berezovaya mountain has steep and short slope. Mountain is visible from the distance through the glade, near its roots large rock at once meet : they have around 20 m height on the Eastern side. I lifted bicycle higher, took my camera and walked to make photos and videos; on the uphill on the White Stone after high rocks in front higher rocks appear after them and there is need to walk attentively, because slope is steep and rocks are covered with ice and snow. To the South there is ability to see Berezovaya mountain, this day it was in the mist and only its silhouette was visible; somewhere there through the mist Shunuth stays in the West …

Rocky ridge of White Stone is quite narrow, but there is ability to walk, basing on the rocks and trees; there is even small stony arc, it seems, that it was formed due to erosion. After it there is ability to walk even further and higher on the ridge, but it is too narrow in that place, without rocks and trees for basement and with rocky slopes to the sides; so, I’ll walk there after snow melting on the dry stones. On the mountain I was for around 1 hour, this day quite strong wind blew from the south, it is not noticeable in the forest, but on the mountain even in -1 degrees on Celsius temperature hands freeze very fast. Admiring this view and big rocks, I descended to the bicycle, put my camera in the pocket and moved in the way back to home.

On the returning way I went on the ski tracks in the direction of ski base to see where tracks start; quite fast it became dark, so, first I walked in the dusk, seeing tracks for 3 – 5 m ahead, then it became completely dark and I moved by feel. On the way there are unfrozen puddles, skiers move through them without problems, but I with bicycle had to find basement points by touch, to not to go shin deep in the water : this day I did not drenched my boots and walked and rode to home with comfort. On the ski track I came to the road, it lead to the west to the light, track lead further to the north, so I walked on the road and came out of the forest approximately in the same place, in which I walked into it : on the hill with communication towers. On the way I met young lady, playing with the dog : there is ability to imagine what she thought seeing a man with bicycle in the darkness, walking from the forest in the snowdrifts. Then road to home, home businesses and going to sleep. Wish December and January frosts to pass faster; meet you in the next bicycle adventures!

You can see rest of photos here.