Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Crunchy Snow

The sound of the furnace announced that my slumber was nearly over.  The wind was still strong and a world in white greeted me earlier when I took the dog out about midnight.  A fine layer of fresh snow on top of fresh rain.  But snow and ice do not bother me.  I have a bicycle for that.  It was 30*F at 4 am, the high of the day for me.

I had hoped for a bit more warmth and packed the single speed (non-winter tires) instead of removing the panniers and placing them on the winter bike.  Damn the lack of bags, roll on a naked bicycle!  All I needed was my wallet and mobile phone.  I've enough clean clothes at work for the rest of the week.

That damn wind.  Strong from the north.  I would take the full brunt of it as a broadside as I headed west along the river.  Every north turn would be miserable.  Just keep pedaling....

Approaching the bridge over the river in Water Works Park two dim lights were heading my way from the opposite bank.  Only one person I know that routinely rides with the weakest lights possible.  That person is David L.  His commute is about the same distance as mine, 12 to 15 miles depending on the route.  He lives in Urbandale and rides to the State House on one of several older MTBs while wearing a backpack.  No racks, no bags, rather, a large stuffed backpack.  Seems miserable, I prefer the bike schelp my stuff.  I am not a mule unless I take a rackless roadie.  But he is out almost every day even in winter.  The trail is a bit out of his way so sometimes he takes the streets.  I want to see him on New Battery Day.  David is one of the few cyclists I truly respect.  Plodding along in the snow on an old bike and dim lights.  He stopped to talk on the bridge.  Said he was having a great ride and enjoyed the crunchy snow.  Tailwinds are great mood enhancers.  We parted and I wondered if I'd see him on the reserves ride.

So now I had his tracks to stare at.  Also had fox tracks and the occasional deer tracks and a few rabbit paw prints to stare at.  But then I realized that there was was a second and third set of bicycle tracks on the trail.  Appeared to belong to a road bike.  Given how straight they were I was 99% certain that they belonged to Joe Ayers.  Joe is retired and rides every morning for about 20 miles unless the weather is bad.  I see him most mornings.  Today he turned around at the bridge.  His tracks left the trail at Pal Joey's where we have parted ways before.  It had to be him.

My winter route has me exiting the trail at 22nd/86th St.  I  then get on University and take it all the way to work.  Today I did something I normally despise.  I took the side walk all the way to 50th before crossing to the other side and taking the sidepath.  Why?  Traffic was light as usual.  However, the street was icky and wet.  What little snow we had was mixed with salt and sand and made a dark slush on the the side of the road where I'd likely ride.  For once, and thanks to the Sun's love and the rain, the sidewalk was free of snow with the exception of the fresh stuff.  I opted to keep the bike clean.  It was my pit stop just before getting off the trail.  The back of the cassette was still shiny like new.  It would be a shame to get road spluge on it.  I hate to surrender the road but the sidewalk was clean.

I parked against the building beneath the overhang.  Normally I only park there if there is any or will be any precipitation.  There was and would be none but the bike rack had snow around it so leaving it empty would not hinder the maintenance team from cleaning the snow up.  Todd parked his Krampus likewise.  Unfortunately, they did not remove the snow.  Oh well, the warm up later this week will.

Today was one of the rare days that it was warmer when I left for work that it was when I left for home.  30*F at 430 am.  27*F at 330 pm.  The promised sunshine never appeared.  At least I had the tailwind to push me home.  The snow on the trail melted a bit leaving ice in its place.  The bike's studded tires gave that ice no quarter and I remained upright the entire journey home.  Not even a slip.  I will have that same ice to look forward to tomorrow in the dark and hopefully the promised warm up will finish it off by the time I leave work.

One last note.  My footwear was perfect.  I wore my decades old Sorel boots with liners, a pair of Smart Wool sock liners and a new pair of cold weather socks that Mary gave me for Christmas.  When I took my boots and socks off at home I noticed that my feet were dry.  Not only did they stay warm but dry as well.  The liner in the boots wicked all the sweat from my feet as evidenced by the moist bottom of the liners.

Good day to ride despite the strong north wind.  Tomorrow the wind is supposed to be weaker.  I hope so.  I'm sick of fighting it.

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