Finally, after about 10 days off the bike, pedaling resumed. As the days passed, I felt increasingly old, stiff, and sluggish. In my world, ice is as confining as a coffin, and I had a correspondingly dark mood.

We've been coated in ice for a week, had to get outside for a minute, even if only for a short walk and a brew up.

No, not today. Not while we are coated in ice.

This is mainly a post to share a YouTube video of my overnighter. But it is also an example of why I love Texas winter.

You might be wondering (I told myself) what life beyond instagram is like. Well, it is real. It is real in all the ways. 

A swept-back handlebar mood overtook me. It's been a fairly long while since a had a bike with anything besides drop bars or flat bars with minimal sweep.

The alarm sounded at 5:30am. It was time to begin. I didn't sleep well and considered another hour of snoozing. This was to be a solo outing, so no one was waiting for me. No one, that is, except May 2026 me expecting some basic ability to pedal a loaded bike up mountains. For this moment, on a dark late December morning, it was time to begin...brewing coffee.

A red tailed hawk perching on a fencepost looks proud and confident, perhaps even regal. Surely, however, he has his embarrassing moments. He sometimes misses the field mouse, his powerful and fierce dive into the grass turns into an awkward crash with feathers flying and talons empty. But he doesn't pout. He regroups, lifts himself into the air, finds another perch, and he sits there as self-assured as ever.

Nothing new, really.

After yesterday's short MTB ride, I was able to head to the grasslands for an overnighter. The weather was perfect. This is the kind of thing I endure summer to enjoy.

I took the Chumba hardtail MTB out today. I rode MTB trails. But there where no mountains, and I'm not really a mountain biker.

...or how custom panniers elevated my experience.