-16C (3F) with the windchill as I headed out this morning. It had snowed overnight and was still coming down; big fluffy flakes that gently battered against my glasses as I rode along. As it was 10:30am on New Year’s Day there wasn’t much traffic on the roads yet and I pretty much had them to myself, especially the lesser used ones. The snowplow/sander trucks hadn’t had time to clear all the main highways yet, so it would be awhile before they got to the secondary roads I was traveling down. One of the bonus factors of a ride on a day like this is that sometimes you get to be the first one to break trail on a quiet back road...
It had been a while since the last snowfall and the brisk winter winds had polished the hard packed road surfaces into one long skating rink and the Ural would frequently lose traction as the rear tire chewed through the light snow covering on top. I had to feather the throttle and use a bit of body English to keep it in a straight line, but for the most part as long as I kept out of any tracks left from previous vehicles the accumulated snowfall gave enough traction to cruise comfortably along at 70-80kmh. It was a beautiful Winter Wonderland and I was really enjoying the ride. I passed by the Shelburne Wind Farm, where we manufacture Light to Moderate breezes for most of southern Ontario and parts of Upper Michigan...
A little over an hour after starting off, I ended up at the “Coffee Time” in Shelburne where I met up with my friends “Stoney and G-Ma” from another forum. I had no sooner had dismounted and taken my helmet off when I saw them turning into the parking lot...
We went inside for a coffee and a chat, during which Stoney suggested we ride across the street to the empty parking lot of the grocery store for a photo shoot afterwards. G-Ma was loaded into the Ural’s sidecar for the short trip while Stoney led us over there. He set up the tripod and the timer on the camera, then took a few photos of the momentous occasion, then while he was dismantling the setup I went zipping around the lot in an attempt to do some doughnuts. But the knobby rear tire had too much grip and the all-season front tire didn’t have enough, so all I managed to do was leave some front end plow marks in a wide circle. I finally gave up and parked it while they got suited up and back onto their bike...
We said our goodbyes and then motored out of the lot and back onto the slushy streets, with Stoney piloting that big jeezus E-Glide like it weighed less than a moped. Skilled rider, that man is. We split off near the end of town and I headed northeast towards home. Now I was heading into a strong headwind with more snow falling and it became a bit of a chore to keep the Ural under control. Several vehicles had been over the back roads by now and none of them had taken the same line, resulting in several ruts weaving in and out and amongst each other. Every time the rig ran across a rut it would fling it in whatever direction the track took. Things got really hairy when I started heading east on the last leg of the trip and had to deal with the strong crosswind. A few times as the Ural lurched across a rut and broke traction, the wind would actually shove the arse end a couple feet over and I’d have to steer full opposite lock and gently reduce the throttle to gain traction again. After about 20km of that game I finally got back into the treed portion of the route and stopped at an intersection to rest for bit and check the map before continuing on...
I was able to wick up the speed to around 70kmh again and merrily blasted along the roads. Halfway around an S-bend obscured by the forest, I had to brake suddenly when I spotted two dogs running loose and heading towards me. As I drifted over to the left, the owner came into view and was frantically waving and clapping her hands to get the dogs’ attention. The big Black Lab suddenly spun around and ran back to Mommy just as I went by and the other large brown German Shepherd cross disappeared in the snow cloud of my mirrors. I was still almost at the left edge of the road, so I slowly increased speed and got ready to change into 3rd gear, when all of a sudden from just behind my left butt cheek came a loud “BARWARWARWOOF!!!”, scaring the living bejeezus out of me. Turns out the brown dog had been off my port stern the whole time, running in stealth mode. I slowly moved over to the left side of the road in an attempt to force him to dive into the snowbank, but he hit the afterburners, passed me on the left, and then crossed over RIGHT in front, sending me into another emergency braking episode. He then ran beside me on the right until I was down to about 10kmh, then let out another “WOOF”, spun around and headed back to his owner. He just had to get the last word in, I guess. No sooner had I got my heart rate and breathing back to normal when a couple km’s later a snowmobile came flying out in front of me from a concealed intersection on my right, fishtailed around and then tore off ahead for a bit before pulling off into a driveway on the left. Then he got off and just stood there with a dumb look on his face as I went by... obviously he hadn’t seen me back at the intersection and wasn’t in his frame of reference for today.
Made it back into town without further incident and even managed to pull out onto the main road ahead of the snowplow and his long daisy chain of traffic following behind him. I stopped at the west end for a pic of McGowan Falls, but couldn’t get as close as I wanted with the Ural, so had to wander closer on foot for the money shot...
Next stop was the gas station to refuel and then it was back home to warm up by the fire. All in all, it was a great first ride of the New Year!
Mike 
