When it snows.

Yesterday the temperature made it up to the 40's so off I went. The weather was great and it was sunny, and there was snow on the ground.

Down the road I went and when I got to the start of my normal trail it was completely covered in snow. Well that's a no go. So I reconsidered my options and went back out to the main road and up a good hill. I figured that I could take that road out to where it eventually meets up with my normal trail across a college campus. Except that plan involves getting across 6 lanes or so of a busy road. There's a traffic light so in theory it's entirely doable, but not exactly ideal.

So instead I decided to try something that I thought might work. A time or two ago when I was out it seemed like normal traffic was moving along what looks like not much more than a service road but it would work. So off I went and instead of my path I took this road instead. I'd always known of the road but didn't think through that it connected out to the road. It was an exciting find. But I knew that the road ended at a bit of a field/park before the underpass that gets me across the busy road.

I got there and my path was covered in snow with one other bike track and some foot prints. Being hardcore as I am onto the snow I went. My bike is not made for snow. You see I have a street bike. It's not an overly serious racing bike so my tires aren't completely bare. But they don't really have much tread either. I figure the picture I found is a decent approximation of them.

I made it approximately 30 feet I figure before I gave up. It went something like this. I'd petal move forward crunch down through the snow (it was a layer of powder with a crust on top) then have to regain my balance as I almost fall over. Repeat. Every movement was the same. It was torture. In someways it reminded me of the mountain biking when I felt like I was off balance so often. But this time I was not even moving because given the lack of tread each push was getting me nowhere. So I walked a bit then the snow was softer so I got back on and it was much nicer. I continued out to my normal turn around point with only minor modifications.

On the way back I decided that I really didn't want to go back over the snow. But I speculated that there may be a way around. You see the service road that I took is a part of a big old complex. It's called the "state hospital" it used to be a big old insane person facility. Now the state government uses it for some kind of offices I think. I'd seen bits of it once or twice. But the place is freaking huge!

Half randomly guessing I wound around all of these buildings and miraculously enough I made it back out where I wanted. It was exciting.

Distance: 13.071 miles
Average Speed: 11.2 mph
Time Moving: 1 hour 10 minutes 8 seconds

"When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels."