I had to take advantage of the winter thaw today to get in some road time. I hit the trail at about 3:30PM with a temperature of 38 degrees and light winds out of the west, a perfect winter day. I opted to start from the zoo and head north around the bike trail assuming that the northern part of the trail out around the airport would be clear of snow and ice. For the most part it was. There were a couple places like under the bridge at Minnesota Ave where the snow was drifted in about 6-8 inches deep. In these areas it was time to walk and carry the bike, kind of like riding Cyclocross. The good news is the were not long stretches at least on the north end of the trail. There were quite a few guys riding the river on their quads taking advantage of the nice day. I was making pretty good time all things considered. This was the first time I had ridden on one of my bikes since Thanksgiving. It was kind of fun to see the number of water fowl in certain areas. There were thousands of geese on the fair grounds property and where ever there was open water along the river their were huge numbers of duck, particularly Mallards. So as I said everything was going along pretty well until I hit downtown and the section of the bike trail that is more protected by trees. The farther south I went the more snow packed the trail became. No let me say that snow pack, hard snow pack doesn't bother me, but the farther I went the deep the snow got in places. By the time I hit Minnesota Ave and I-229 it was becoming real work to maneuver the trail. There were parts between Minnesota and Western where they had cut through the three foot drifts, but the snow had blown back in and made it very difficult and at times impossible to ride. I will say this. It was a great work out and great for improving your bike handling and balance. I was so glad to get past the old steal bridge by western and back up on the dike on the west side. The path was clear and smooth, a nice change. When I got back to the Jeep I realized just how much of a workout it had been and how much of a sweat I had worked up. Once I started standing around I began to get colder. So in the Jeep, heater on full of I went to pick up Kay. Oh yeah she had to work so she missed all the fun. I am thinking she is OK with that though. Spring is not that far away anymore.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
January 21, 2009 Winter Thaw
I had to take advantage of the winter thaw today to get in some road time. I hit the trail at about 3:30PM with a temperature of 38 degrees and light winds out of the west, a perfect winter day. I opted to start from the zoo and head north around the bike trail assuming that the northern part of the trail out around the airport would be clear of snow and ice. For the most part it was. There were a couple places like under the bridge at Minnesota Ave where the snow was drifted in about 6-8 inches deep. In these areas it was time to walk and carry the bike, kind of like riding Cyclocross. The good news is the were not long stretches at least on the north end of the trail. There were quite a few guys riding the river on their quads taking advantage of the nice day. I was making pretty good time all things considered. This was the first time I had ridden on one of my bikes since Thanksgiving. It was kind of fun to see the number of water fowl in certain areas. There were thousands of geese on the fair grounds property and where ever there was open water along the river their were huge numbers of duck, particularly Mallards. So as I said everything was going along pretty well until I hit downtown and the section of the bike trail that is more protected by trees. The farther south I went the more snow packed the trail became. No let me say that snow pack, hard snow pack doesn't bother me, but the farther I went the deep the snow got in places. By the time I hit Minnesota Ave and I-229 it was becoming real work to maneuver the trail. There were parts between Minnesota and Western where they had cut through the three foot drifts, but the snow had blown back in and made it very difficult and at times impossible to ride. I will say this. It was a great work out and great for improving your bike handling and balance. I was so glad to get past the old steal bridge by western and back up on the dike on the west side. The path was clear and smooth, a nice change. When I got back to the Jeep I realized just how much of a workout it had been and how much of a sweat I had worked up. Once I started standing around I began to get colder. So in the Jeep, heater on full of I went to pick up Kay. Oh yeah she had to work so she missed all the fun. I am thinking she is OK with that though. Spring is not that far away anymore.
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2 comments:
Hi Ed! A couple of us are going to ride around the trail this afternoon, yup, in the cold.
You and Kay going to join FAB this year? The Wandering Wednesday ride out of Rowena is scheduled for May 13, June 24, July 29, and Aug. 2.
Of course, we have more than that, but that is the sked for Rowena.
Come on down!
Darn..wish I had gotten this mesage sooner. We probably would have been there. We will be joining FAB. We are going riding at Two Wheeler Dealer at 4PM today. We have been riding on our trainers on Wednesdays at 7PM and Sundays at 4PM. There were fifteen of us Wednesday night. Hope you had a good ride.
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