I was only able to rent one for a few hours in the Methow over New Years and rode it up to Grizzly Hut. Really fun! Just chugged my way right up the trail to the hut and enjoyed a really nice roll back down. Every skier I passed smiled and asked about the bike. Wish I could have rented the thing all day. Felt like I was peddling a monster truck.
It's only allowed on a few places out in the MTTA system right now. Mostly just up to Grizzly Hut and a big loop in one of the meadows. I was talking to the owner of Methow Cycle where I rented and he said the biggest obstacle to letting them onto the rest of the trails is permitting. Their trail system crosses land from so many different agencies and private owners that making any changes to the system is incredibly difficult. Their worry is that renegotiating everything to allow bikes might be a risk to keeping the whole "community trail" from Mazama to Winthrop together. I can also see how having groups of fatbikes on the trail might not mix well with skate skiers, even though the bikes don't leave any damage on the groomed areas.
Hopefully they can work something out. I'd really like to have one for riding up snowmobile-groomed FS roads like the Teanaway or Cle Elum to trailheads.
That makes sense. You don't want to ruin a great thing. As a XC skier I can completely appreciate that. I think education is going to be key. If I didn't know anything about fatbiking I'd probably be opposed to it myself.
The more I think about it the more I realize how much terrain is out there and accessible. Cle Elum and Teanaway also came to mind for me. What about Cabin Creek?
Fat bikes were becoming popular when I was living in Ottawa. They did not bother me in the snow and made a fairly good track for trad XC. We had a lot of technical bike trails in the area and the snow made them far easier and you would soon get to a point where you could ride the snowy trails with a conventional mountain bike. Snowshoe tracks were no problem either, on the other hand postholers .
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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