Aldape Summit Too Early in the Year

I was at 461 miles for the month on 28 Feb but my training plan called for 500 miles for February.  Leap year gave me a chance to make those 39 miles, and I'd been thinking about Aldape Summit/Hilltop ride which is about 50 miles.  I did it last year (a dry year) in mid March with no snow issues.  On reaching the summit I could see snow up near the top on the south face of the mountain, but only very near the top, so I decided to go for it knowing there would likely be some snow on the downhill which is a north slope.

Aldape Summit sits at 4,788 ft roughly 2,086 ft above downtown Boise.  It's mostly a decomposed granite road with just a little recreational traffic.  Toward the top I had to push through a couple of icy spots in the shade of the few trees up there.  On reaching the summit I wasn't surprised to see snow immediately covering the north side, but assumed it wouldn't be long, and I could ride over a lot of it since I was headed down.

The snow is deep enough to easily hold my bike up in the first section over the top

Looking back up, it looks partly rideable

The problem was the farther down I went the deeper the snow got.  Soon I wasn't just pushing but was working hard to determine what part of the snow would hold me up and what would let me sink in a foot to 18".  Others parts were crusted over with slick ice on top slowing me down a lot.

Turning a corner I found two pickups (look closely and you'll see the 2nd dark green one almost on the corner) abandoned in the snow

My tennis shoes didn't provide any traction on the ice and little on the crusted snow, so it was a slow descent, but I kept telling myself, "there should be LESS snow as I descend".  Eventually, I got down to where a few spots were rideable, and then the first house where the county's snow plows go!  Well disguised by the decomposed granite base, icy sections remained invisible until I was in them, so I held my speed down on the remainder of this descent.  Once to the county road, it didn't take long to reach the park were Robie Creek flows into the Boise River, and where I enjoyed my lunch.  Looking back, I noticed it's not just a ridge I crossed.  The descent is surrounded by mountains on the North, East, and West,  making it a basin,  so the farther down I came, the less winter sun this side of the mountain gets. After lunch there's a 703' climb on the pavement over Hilltop giving me 3,837 ft of gain for the day according to Map-My-Ride. Then it was downhill back home where I arrived at dusk.

Miles  52.0 (via an Alberstons)  Riding Time  6:26  Elevation Gain 3,837

I'm blaming 1:00 of this time and my arrival home at dusk on pushing thru the snow, but the ride put me over my 500 mile goal for the month beating Christy in our bet on who gets the most monthly mileage prior to our cross country tour!  Thank you Leap Year!

Happy cycling for fun, fitness, and transportation