It’s pretty common for me to start from home for bike rides, and in previous years I’d done a number of winter rides which set out from home, over to River Bends or so, and back. With the abnormally heavy snow falls of 2013/2014 my first from-home ride didn’t take place until today, March 2nd.
For today’s ride I left home with River Bends as my destination. The Rochester Bike Shop team was having a get together / training event at the park, so I figured I’d swing by and say hello. The route up to the park was so difficult that the normally 3-4 mile route took me nearly 50 minutes (moving time) as I dealt with impassible sidewalks, ice, and three inches of freshly fallen snow. After arriving at the park I rode one pass through the entrance trail, but as my tires were at path-riding pressure I had a hard time. I could have dropped pressures to something more appropriate for riding trails, but I didn’t want to pump them back up later. So, after a bit of talking I left the park and headed back home.
For the route home I conjured up my best residential street memories from back when I was first exploring the area, and I found a route which only required me to walk one spot, a frustrating piece of sidewalk along Shelby which was mostly icy footprints and plow piles covered in a gentle blanket of snow (photo). Riding along the deceptively named Powers Court (map – it’s the only Van Dyke to Shelby through-road in the neighborhood and decidedly not a court) I happened across some deep icy ruts, one of which (photo) put me on my side. Like most winter falls it was uneventful, but likely amusing to anyone watching.
The closer I got to home the more the residential streets and sidewalks had thawed, and it wasn’t long until I was riding through swaths of icy, grey slush. This left a giant pile of muck on the downtube of the bike. Unfortunately the largest chunk (about two fists in size) fell off just before I grabbed this photo. A few watering cans of hot tap water rinsed it all off, and an hour in front of the fan had it looking shiny and clean again.
Strava data for this ride can be found here, but the result is 1:46:11 moving time, about 30 minutes stopped (when talking at River Bends and at traffic crossings), and only 12.34 miles. I’m really looking forward to longer rides once the weather is nice again. Hopefully this year will be at least as successful as last in that regard.
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