This past Sunday was a great day for us fatbikers in the Winnipeg area of Manitoba, as we got the chance to ride GROOMED WINTER FATBIKE TRAIL again in our own ‘backyard’ on one of our favourite trails … (former Bur Oak Trail – now called “Oak Ridge Trail) at Birds Hill Provincial Park!

Now we’ve ridden this trail in the winter before, having packed it by snowshoe and then riding our fatties slowly round and round and round until it was possible to ride with ‘flow’ … so it was today with a bit more packing making it more groomed than usual.

 I first connected with a crew of six riders new to me and most of us regulars.  They called themselves the “Pinoy MB Fatbibers” and Tito, Drex, Sam, Trek, Jovil and Ador were keen to check out the trails, so I lead them around the main track …

The early morning lighting and fresh snow on the trees had created those special winter vistas that you only really get to appreciate when you are out on the trail.

After a fun ride with the Pinoy Crew, I connected with more arriving fatties …

Once again I link up with a new crew, but this time most were regulars (Peter, Greg, Janice, etc) and off we went …

Of course, it wasn’t long before we connected with our very own fatbiking ‘Photo-ambusher’ Gregory McNeill …

Actually, it’s always a good time for a hot apple cider break when Gregory’s ‘at work’!

Once we turned back toward the south, the bright sun made for some surreal views …

We cruised the newly groomed sections and put in the tougher effort to ride to the narrower and tighter curved sections that had only been snowshoed in so far …

A full lap of all the trail sections takes 1 to 1 & 1/2 hours depending on conditions, pace and number of hot apple cider breaks :-).  Anyways, back to the trail head we went …

Just in time for me to connect with two new fatbikers who had just arrived, but missed another group of regulars who were heading off lead by Keith Holm and “Lou Fatinsky”

Angie W. and Chris F. showed up ready to roll with goggles, mitts and balaclavas at the ready (excellent start!).  So I lead off onto the main groomed section … north from the trailhead parking lot, but accessed first by going out the west side of the lot by the trailhead sign and then taking the first right onto the singletrack trail for a short east leg of 100 metres before the trail heads north and west.

Chris was right behind me on the way out so he was in view of my rear GoPro video camera.

Chris lead us back and Angie followed with a wide smile on her face the whole way!  Yup, the saying is true … “Everyone who rides a fatbike wears a huge smile”!! 🙂

We met up with Keith Holm’s crew and more introductions to our fun community of fatties were in order and partaken.

To top off our day’s adventures on the trail, we had a close encounter with Mike on his fat tire unicycle … that guy’s got skills! 🙂

Back at the trailhead we all marvelled at our amazing luck to have taken part in the first real day of groomed winter trail fatbiking in the our local Winnipeg and Eastern Manitoba area!   Good times and more ahead! 🙂