Drove the 50 miles out the end of Chena Hot Springs Road yesterday and consequently Chena Hot Springs. This is probably my favorite local spot to visit during the winter and somehow here it was March and this was the first trip out since last April. Great biking, or cross country skiing, nice atmosphere and of course the hot springs which supply mineral-therapeutic water similar to that at Lourdes in France. Pulled into the parking lot around noon after bucking the stiff headwind driving out, this a standard condition out here so as preparations for the ride began I overdressed a little for the temperatures expected. Cloudless skies, 15F and getting warmer, beautiful day for about anything. As usual I did a quick once around the outdoor tub and Rock Lake, a large boulder bordered pool. Biking bare, if frozen, ground, what a treat and something looked forward to. The snow pack this winter is as low as I've ever seen so there was more bare ground around the pools than usual. From the back of Rock Lake I followed familiar trails out to the beginning of the main ski trails. The overflow was impressive and at the beginning of the short loop trail a big hump of ice was covering the trail.

Here I backtracked and got on a new road that headed up valley toward the end of the airstrip which is where the trail I wanted to ride started. This new road ran right over and joined another new road coming right off the end of the airstrip.

The good part was having a nice easy road to ride up and bypass the challenging trail over the overflow, the bad part was having a nice easy road to ride up and bypass the challenging trail over the overflow.

Speaking of overflow this is an amazing creek. Monument Creek runs 11 miles from the hot springs following a little valley to it's head. It's a small creek, in summer running 6 inches to a foot deep and 6-10 foot wide but because of the hot springs it runs all winter and forms tremendous amounts of overflow ice, a beautiful deep blue ice too. Beside forming all the overflow the regular presence of exposed water often creates otherworldly hoar ice on the alders and willows.

Heading upstream the road ran along the right side of the valley. The cat had piled up a big wall of ice to the left of the road and to the left of that had cut a moat of sorts between the wall of ice and the main body of overflow. I'm assuming this was to protect the road from the overflow.

Now I was getting a little nervous thinking this road might run right up the valley but about a mile up it looped and headed back down the other side of the valley. Coming back there were fresh dogsled tracks so the road was probably there for the tourists going for a dog ride and or snowmachine rides. In the middle of the loop there was a well packed snowmachine trail heading upvalley. The road was quickly forgotten a few minutes up this sweet trail.

Except for a couple of very short sections (50-100 ft.) from here on the entire trail is on overflow ice. Very well packed, most of the trail I cruised up in mid ring 2 gear. Oddly the strong headwind had turned into a strong tailwind helping me up the valley. Came to where something had dragged vegetation across the trail and into a hole in the ice. The dragged brush had wiped out any tracks so I don't know if it was beaver (probably), muskrat or otter.

On up the slowly narrowing valley, never seen so much overflow which had covered the valley floor in most places. The trail was firm and after a couple more miles the fresh snowmachine tracks ended and I was riding on a inch of unbroken powder. The trail would split occasionally and I'd have to chose the one that I thought was packed harder, with the unbroken snow this was pretty much guesswork.

As in the past the trail started to get softer so I began letting air out of the tires. It gets softer every time a snowmachine had turned around but with the low snow and extra overflow it wasn't as bad previous rides.

You can see from the above picture I was sinking in a little more even with lowered pressure. The softer trail combined with the increasing rate of climb had me working and with the wind at my back and the sun beating down I was very warm and by now had everything open.

Wow, the trail came around a corner and here the overflow had covered the entire valley floor and formed a large gentle hill. It was all ice with just a half inch of snow on top.

I rode around here surprised out how much traction there was, no need to follow the trail just go where fancy takes you. On top of the rise I suddenly found myself in a foot of power and managed to clean it back to the trail.

Finally the last mile or two turned into downright work as the trail continued to soften. I turned around close to the end where the creek starts to run open.

As always this is when the best part begins, all downhill so I added a little air for the first of several times on the way back. I took a nice break and snacked then buttoned up for the faster ride back into a headwind. The last couple of miles going in I'd been in the little ring 2-3 gear and as the trail got better going back I soon found myself in middle ring 4-6 and then the last few miles it was the one of the rare times as a winter trail rider I got to use the big ring.

At the bottom of the biggest overflow hill was a corner with fresh overflow I had to work around.

The rest of the way back to the hot springs I kind of kicked it. I was funny as at the start I was figuring on a short ride due to a couple of mild but nagging injuries. Of course as so often happens when I hit a good trail feeling physically or mentally not up to snuff my legs tend to take over and I end up just going along for the ride. I've learned to carry food and water for a long ride even when feeling not up to much. Back at the hot springs I circled Rock Lake again getting a last taste of dirt and cooling down a bit.

Put the bike away, had a quick bite with a little wine and headed to the springs. Soaked for a couple of hours watching the stars come out before heading home. Driving home already wondering how long the overflow ice of Monument Creek would last. With any luck it might be ridable for weeks or longer after all the snow is melted and could offer some unique biking.