Push through the mush...

The daylight stays a bit longer every evening, went home from work an hour earlier than usual and it was still bright enough to go for a short ride in the forest.

There is usually a path here but not today, skipped it too...
A hint of sunlight in the horizon.
The road up to the trail was not ploughed but there were some car tracks to follow.

when at the trail, on the other hand, only some animal tracks in the snow. As soon as one got outside the path the snow was meter deep.
Or deeper as I was about to find out soon!
Quite funny to pull a birch branch and watch the branches knock out the snow on the branch above in domino style all the way to the top of the tree! =)
Parked the bike and walked out in to the snow and it was really deep, almost up to the waist, glad I sealed my trouser legs against the shoes! Tried to do the branch trick on the pinewoods but they weren't as "sprongy" as the birch branches. :(
Now I had pushed the pug enough and the rest of the trail wasn't as steep as up to here so I turned around and started go back down again.
Since there was a lot of snow and some tracks under it I had to keep the weight on the rear wheel not to skid off the trail! Did well the first 100 meters before I lost it and ended up in the ditch, did a foolish attempt to correct my steering with the right foot, but it just disappeared in to the snow! I went after the foot straight in to the loose snow that had gathered in the ditch. Just had to laugh by my self lying buried in the snow! =)
The bike was still on the trail but the handlebars got buried in to the snow too, the head light made the snow shine wonderfully. The red light is from the GPS-pod LED.
After getting out of the forest in one piece I took a detour through the town to get some normal biking, another view of Ludvika by night.
Did a brave attempt to make my way down a short steep slope, must have looked funny to see me trying to bike in meter deep snow!
As soon as the slope ended I got stuck.
Then I pushed the bike a few hundred meter more before I got out on the road and back home again. A workout worth the name!

Way too little people walking on the trails so now it will take ages before it will be possible to bike in the forest again. :(...

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=2040769