Saturday, February 3rd set some new records. First, we woke up to the coldest morning of the year and of the winter season. Hovering at 8°F., the frigid weather formed ice on my eyebrows from the condensation of my own breath.

But the freezing temperature was not the only record of the day. When the temperature had risen all the way up to the teens, Jonathan, Daniel, and I set off on our bikes to take a winter tour of scenic route Buffalo Calf! The road was completely covered in snow and seemingly treacherous. But as we slowly wound our way through the bright and picturesque landscape, we found that the road was not nearly as slick as we expected! We made incredible time and biked the 2 miles of Buffalo Calf, a feat we had never done before on bikes in the dead of winter.

Yes, it was easier than we expected, but that didn’t mean it was without difficulty. We found that biking on snow and ice is much different than under normal circumstances. Faith in our bikes’ abilities slowly decreased as brakes refused to work, spinning tires became unpredictable and unavoidable, and sliding became a factor when taking curves at high speeds. The many hills didn’t help that much either. It was a completely different type of recreation and we were all tuckered out and sweating hard when we got home.

If you ever get the chance to go snow-biking, you really ought to do it. It’s a good object lesson on faith. The temporal things you put your faith in during fair weather just aren’t good enough when conditions are unfavorable.