In Which I Finish a Full Week of Riding

Ready for ride to campus Friday morning--note snow on the driveway. The thin layer proved not to be slick, which was my hope.

I have been enjoying this year’s late February dry spell—snow fell twice this week, but only very light snow. The heaviest amount was today, Friday morning. “Heaviest amount” meant you could actually visually detect it—snow was visible on the pavement and in the grass this morning.

But the layer was very thin, and I knew the pavement had been dry the day before, so I decided the chances that there was any hidden ice under that lacy layer of white was pretty minimal. My personal rule in general is not to ride on ice or snow, but I decided today was an exception.

I have a mountain bike mostly for winter riding, and I just didn’t think it would be slippery. I think I was right.

The morning commute was a bit slow—I was trying to be careful. But I never felt that it was treacherous—I never sensed any slipping.

Tracks in the morning snow, C Avenue near Blair's Ferry Road. The thin line is my tyre track, the thick one is where i put a booted food down to help stop.

By afternoon, when I was ready to head home, the sun was shining down on a chilly, wintery Iowa world. The sunshine didn’t exactly warm my corner of planet Earth much, but it was enough to cause the morning flakes to all have disappeared back into the atmosphere (on a cold day, snow in sunshine doesn’t melt so much as just becoming vapor that dissipates into the dry air).

Corner of C and Blair's Ferry during afternoon commute home.

Why did I ride today? I think I was just feeling a bit cantankerous. I wanted to finish a full work week of riding.

And I did it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warm—chances of some sort of Saturday right are good. And I rode and rode and rode this week.

I hope you had a chance to get out on your wheels. If not, you should this weekend. Winter is not done with us yet, but there are starting to be signs of spring!