Last snow commute of the season?
I’ve been thinking lately that, despite carrying my camera almost everywhere I go on the bike, I’ve taken few pictures of actual winter riding. Sure I’ve taken shots with snow in them, but the roads have been, at worst, wet. I decided to fix that today with these shots from my morning commute.
On Saturday mornings, I always stop at Jim’s Restaurant for breakfast, and to swap lies with the (other) old guys at the counter. Ordinarily, I ride a long loop on the way, but today I rode the direct route. They were impressed nonetheless. The grocery bags over the saddle ensure my posterior will stay dry when I come back out.
Arriving at work, a co-worker was also early, so I had her snap this shot.
I was not first tracks, BTW. The ones running across were already filling with snow.
The slushy sloppiness is really easy to ride in. You almost don’t need snow tires, and certainly not studs. Road tires would be dicey cornering, but otherwise would be just fine.
I love the trees and stuff when we get sticky snow without wind. This is looking up my usual route on Atlantic Ave, and the way I came home this afternoon.
Apparently, sometimes the early bird doesn’t get the worm. I was astonished to see the first robins of spring. There were a half-dozen or so in the trees outside work. They were very skittish, so I didn’t get any really good shots, but here are two of them anyway.
The Hyperbole Channel™ forecast 12–15 inches for this weekend, split between last night and tonight. We’re going to have to get a lot of snow tonight to make up for how little we got last night. But at least it was a pretty snow.
At the diner this morning, I sat next to some blowhard spouting off about the price of gas, and that nobody does anything to reduce energy consumption. I noticed keys and those goofy remote controls for two different cars on his keyring.
You can never make a point with a blowhard, so I never mentioned this obvious hypocrisy, or that my Trek was parked outside by his guzzler.
Anyway, the cool thing about riding in the snow is that drivers give you a really wide berth. It’s a balance of fear thing. They are far more afraid of that crazy guy on a bike than they are of getting that next light on red.
Fortunately all the snowplows I encountered today were going the opposite direction. Snowplows are one thing I’ll get off the road for.
I arrived at work in plenty of time to mess around outside taking pictures. The librarian, who has keys and an alarm code, was late because the roads weren’t plowed. Here I figured being late was the result of not leaving early enough. Who knew?
Riding home was a little tougher since the temperature had dropped four degrees and the slushy mess was starting to freeze. Even so, my round trip average speed was 13.5 MPH.
I wanted to drop off Yellow Bike’s old wheelset to be trued, and I was having fun in the snow, so after I got home, I strapped the wheelset to my backpack and rode over to Full Moon Vista, where I had a delightful afternoon of drinking coffee, bothering the staff, and chatting with other customers.
Two guys were at least my age and buying their second bikes after taking up riding last year. Both have joined the Rochester Bicycling Club, and I hope to see them again on one of the rides.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:55 pm EDT
Nice Pictures!
Meant to tell you that for a while. The look back to a few weeks ago is stunning. The parked bike by the restaurant parking sign really makes a strong statement!