Beach Riding and Exploration

Is this shoreline rideable, I wonder?

I suppose I was feeling smug. Along with desiring to ride through the cold plus wearing thick mittens and praising the balaclava, I felt ready to tackle anything.

Lake Champlain's water level is still unusually low for this time of year, creating beautiful glass-like icy conditions on the shoreline. There are vast stretches of sandy beach too, tempting and luring me off the asphalt path. I negotiate twigs and fallen leaves to arrive at water's edge.

I dreamed of riding through tundra-like conditions: firm sand with rideable pockets of shallow, breakable ice.

However, the reality was my 2" wide tires were no match against sharp clam shells, a hazard I hadn't anticipated.

I turned around almost as soon as I started, unwilling to risk a flat in 20F temperatures, but not before encountering a web of stumps, visible above current lake level, creating a tentacle-like twisted maze, like art hovering above the sand.

I'm reminded that curiosity fuels our wanderlust. Taking one step in that direction: turning down a road never ridden, a trail never taken, may not divulge what you expect, but something just as satisfying: surprising, hidden gems.