Re: WINTER RIDING

["Code-Co, Byron Harward" <byron@code-co.com>]

At 05:17 PM 12/15/98, you wrote: 
>
> The biggest problem in Winter riding for me
> is keeping hands and feet warm.



I live in Utah and ride all winter at temperatures down to 15-20 degrees F.
 To
keep my feet warm, I have started with my stirrups. I have gotten the widest
stirrups I could find. (The old-west wood stirrups that are banded in metal
but
not covered by leather are the widest that I could find.) With wide stirrups I
can comfortably and safely wear insulated pack boots. In the pack boots I wear
three socks. The first is a polypropylene thin sock to wick sweat away. The
next is a very tight woven, thick wool sock. and the last is an over-the-calf
Thorlo Extreme Conditions sock. This is a very thick pile synthetic material
sock.

The particular pack boots I wear are ones that do NOT have the "cleat" style
sole. They have a light "ripple" sole. This lets me get them in and out of the
stirrups better than the heavy cleats that most pack boot have. (It may take
some looking to find this kind of sole.)

The result of this system is that my feet are always warm and I can enjoy
winter as a bug-free, bright, quiet time almost always by myself.

Byron Harward and Tzadik