Bootlegging an epic ride

I woke up Sat. a.m. to rain. The ride was still on though, so I headed out to meet up with the group and begin our little adventure for the day.
The rain stopped by 7:30 and winds kicked up to help dry out things. It's been dry for almost 3 weeks, so what rain we did get soaked in quick and made the going good.
Starting temp. was 44 degrees.....very do-able.
Craig promised bushwacking and hike-a-bikes, and he did not let us down. We also had some prime single track that gets very little mtb riding, but enough other traffic to be worn in and rideable.
4 hrs later we were getting back to the vehicles to 26 degrees and light snow flurries(and gusts up to 30 mph). My hands were just starting to get a little uncomfortable, so I was happy to see heat!
So now we have a inch or so of snow on the ground and just got back from walking Jadah(my trusty lab) in a beautiful 4 degree morning as the sun starts to come up. Kind of epic in itself.
The 2011 mtb season officially has a race on the schedule. The Ouchita Challenge is a 60 miler down in Arkysaw that fills up in hours.....but I'm in! Reg. opened at 2:30 am eastern and already has 228 in the open class and 22 singlespeeds. Sounds like a good time once again.
******Late edit- Ouchita Challenge is now full and registration closed. Made it by an hour. Good thing I didn't sleep in!******