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Today I headed out for an afternoon ride up to River Bends on the Titus fitted with studded tires. Thanks to my neighbors who seem to feel they have no obligation to clear the path/sidewalk that runs along their house, much of the riding near my house was absolutely terrible. The lack of snow clearing was not the issue as I can easily ride through 5″ of snow, but with most of the sidewalk being partially frozen, lumpy footprints covered with dusty snow riding on this segment was simply unfun. Due to the balance, constant pushing, and careful pedaling required riding this stuff was more difficult than the hard climbs at Holdridge.
After making it to River Bends the ride was rather uneventful and typical for the park. The pavement was snow covered but smooth, and the two track had a nicely worn 12″ wide flat section perfect for riding. I attempted to ride the single track, but it was snow covered, soft, loose, and generally unfun. I think I’ll leave that to the hikers until things thaw or melt a bit.
While out in the park I saw fresh trails and the car of a friend who I know from MMBA group rides, but I wasn’t able to catch up to him and only saw him driving out of the lot as I finished riding through the park. It’s good to know that there other folks who are getting out there to ride this time of the year, even if it’s not on the single track.
As residential streets and some sidewalks (mostly business and township-owned) were cleared the rest of the ride was uneventful. I encountered the typical surprised drivers who didn’t expect to see someone at a crosswalk, much less someone on a bicycle, but there were no notable encounters. Weirdly cars seemed very cautious about passing me on the residential streets, but perhaps they saw me riding on icy patches were afraid of me falling in front of them. I’m really glad they chose to be cautious of just plowing past.
Final stats for today’s ride were departing at about 14:30, traveling 13.08 miles over 1:22:50 for an average of 9.47 MPH with a max speed of 19.97 MPH.