This morning, conditions were even worse than they were yesterday. We got some freezing rain on top of the snow and everything else, and in fact it was raining when I left for work this morning despite the fact that it was in the lower 20s. I was pretty surprised when I walked outside to find we were getting more freezing rain. The maintenance guy was putting salt on the sidewalks and whatnot and he seemed stunned to see that I was about to ride a bicycle. There was a pretty good layer of ice on everything, to the point where in some places I could walk or ride without leaving a footprint or tire tread in the snow. Fortunately once I left the parking lot and got onto a real road, things were a little bit better — although not by that much.

The roads right by my apartment weren’t too bad, they were mostly slushy with a little snow and a little ice mixed in. But it was raining pretty hard and that of course made riding more difficult. The bike path was abysmal, the whole surface consisted of snow covered in a layer of ice in which my weight could barely even leave an imprint. And footprints from pedestrians had frozen, making for a very bumpy, slippery ride. I took my time and while I lost traction in my rear tire a couple of times, it was mostly pretty good. Only on the climb up back to the road did my tire spin a bit.

The freezing rain persisted and I started to notice ice accumulating on my handlebars, light, and shifters. Things were getting a little crazy. The roads in the residential area I rode through were pretty poor, although once I got closer to campus, things improved. However, after riding on a small path there and ending up on a road where most cars can’t go, things got really sketchy again. A lack of traffic meant that ice was forming on the surface of the road, and I didn’t even realize how slick it was until I approached a stop sign. I braked carefully, but still my rear brake started sliding out to the side. I feathered my brakes but it happened again. Ultimately I needed to stop so I continued feathering my brakes. My rear wheel slid out from under me and I had no choice but to lay the bike down. I was only going probably 7 mph or so at the time so I just laid down the bike and slid a few feet myself. Then I stood up (which I could barely do, due to the ice), got back on the bike, and kept moving.

The rest of the roads weren’t too bad but I was getting a thick layer of ice on my shifters and now even my jacket was accumulating ice. My movements resulted in crackling sounds from the ice breaking. My glasses had water and ice on them. Fortunately I didn’t have far to go and the road conditions improved. I never thought I’d be that happy to see snowy slush. That stuff can be nasty, but it’s nothing compared to the frozen surfaces I was dealing with.

Our parking lot at work was just ridiculous, more snow with a layer of ice on top of it. I could barely even walk on this surface. I’ve found I actually do better on surfaces like this one on the bike. I guess I need some knobby shoes. For times like this I wish I had studded tires, but there’s no way I could justify the expense, given how infrequently I’d need them.

It was crazy how much ice was all over my bicycle and my jacket by this point. I wish I could have gotten some pictures, but I needed to get to work. I’m hoping conditions will improve by the time I go home, because that was insane. But I’m sort of convinced it’s safer than driving in some ways at least, and once again, I had FUN riding to work in this stuff.

Wow. I think someone messed up my request for snow on my birthday. We got a little bit of that yesterday, but on my way home I was pelted with sleet. Thousands of tiny icicles assaulted me from above, each hitting my face at high velocity, like a constant stream of pins being stuck in my face. The roads were a mixed bag; some were clear, some had varying mixtures of snow, slush, and sleet covering them. Traction wasn’t bad but I would’ve been screwed without my knobby tires. I took a few photos on my way home when conditions allowed.

College Avenue stoplight

Art museum

Theater

Dear Tioga, GT, Kool Stop, and SKS: how about some sponsorship?

7th Street

Shimano: ditto on the sponsorship.

The bike path was treacherous as usual and the roads near my apartment were pretty bad, too. I got home and got the mail, finding the Pink Floyd jersey I won in Noah’s contest in my mailbox. Fortuitous timing, having that arrive on my birthday. Thanks, Noah!

I decided that what I needed most at this point wasn’t to sit in my nice warm apartment — it was beer. And I’d get it on my bicycle, of course. I rode to the nearest liquor store, which is about a mile away. Conditions were getting worse and I started feeling some of my mountain biking skills coming into play as I rode through snow/slush drifts*, shifted my weight back to let my front wheel roll over anything in my way, and felt fairly comfortable with the fact that my tires were drifting beneath me. I probably stayed under 10 mph most of the way — but who knew 10 mph could be so exhilarating?
* Yes, apparently slush can drift. I didn’t think so either, but I saw it with my own eyes.

I got a six-pack of Bad Elmer’s Porter from my favorite local brewery, Upland. I wasn’t sure if this was the best way to go, because I intended to go have dinner at the brewery and if I did I’d get plenty of Upland beer then. But the conditions being what they were, I figured I ought to have some on hand anyway.

The cashier commented, “You’re a braver man than I” for riding in those conditions. I pointed out that I got home before my coworkers finished scraping the ice off their cars. I forgot to mention that I had fun doing it, too. He said he rides to work sometimes when the weather is better. Excellent.

My ride home featured more tire slippage but otherwise was pretty good. I am really impressed with how well my old mountain bike fares in conditions like these, even without studded tires.

I got home and opened the package from Noah. I was pleasantly surprised, the Pink Floyd jersey looked nice on his blog, but the photos don’t really do it justice. It’s a nice-looking jersey. And since I only had two short-sleeved jerseys before now, I am especially appreciative. This one is cool because it looks more like a normal shirt — it’s got a relatively loose fit for a jersey and the design doesn’t scream “I’m a cyclist!”

Birthday goodies: Pink Floyd jersey and some nice dark beer. Score!

The jersey fits pretty well. Side note: I have a lot of reflective items in my dining room.

Sarah had a late class that’s not scheduled to get out until 8:30. They got out at 8, so I picked her up and we went to Upland for dinner. The roads were not in great shape, but drivable. I was cursing at a cop car who stopped right in front of me at the bottom of a hill for no apparent reason, then decided to turn. I wanted to use momentum to get up the hill, and I still made it, but not without spinning my tires a bit.

We had a great dinner with poor service at Upland (as always), and drank a couple of beers. I had a nut brown ale with dinner, which is decent, but the highlight was their chocolate stout, which makes for an excellent dessert.

After we got home, Sarah gave me my birthday gifts. They are uber cool. She got me a titanium backpacking cook set and a tiny alcohol stove, along with some freeze-dried food to go with them, and a bottle of stuff to waterproof maps — continuing the recent theme of touring items as gifts. This theme rocks, since I really want to do some S24O trips and touring, and you need a fair amount of gear to do those things. Oh, and she also got me a gift certificate for Rivendell — cleverly, the amount is listed in “Rivendollars.” Sarah apologized for giving me practical items as she said they’re “not very exciting.” But I don’t think she quite realizes just how exciting a stove smaller than a hockey puck is, or how great that titanium cookware will be. Before long I’ll be able to carry everything I need on a bicycle, and that is exciting.

My ride home last night was fun, the snow didn’t melt and the roads were clear, but I had fun riding in the snow on the bike path. In fact, I tacked on a little extra distance, following the bike path to where it ends and then coming back to go where I needed to go. There was a little ice, but mostly it was just nice crunchy snow.

The same was true this morning. I woke up to find it was 12 degrees outside. I showered and got ready, bundling up. By the time I got to work, I was quite warm. When I reached my desk, I saw that the temperature had reached a whopping 17 degrees. No wonder I was warm! They’re predicting more snow today and a “wintry mix” tonight, so maybe things will get interesting. By the way, I turn 28 years old today. I’m hoping for snow for my birthday.

As promised, here are some photos from my commute yesterday.

Handlebars, taken while stopped at the drive-up mailbox to return some Netflix movies.

Weird door. I had never noticed this before.

7th St.

The only real hill on my commute, long, but gradual.

My bicycle in the storage room

Sunset over the bike path

It was a good weekend for riding. On Saturday, it was sunny and around 40 degrees. The only time I have ridden a version of this route before was with the Bloomington Bicycle Club back in May of last year. I looked at the map and it included an out-and-back stretch that went to Paragon and then crossed State Road 37. I decided to leave that portion out, since I would be looking at about 40 miles already and I had other things to do that afternoon.

My ride started with part of my commute route, and on the road bike the bike path was quite treacherous. Most of the snow and ice had melted by this time, but the bike path is shaded, and still had ice on parts of it. This really made me appreciate how much my knobby tires help on ice. My back tire slipped out from under me as I was pedaling uphill. Fortunately I knew falling was a possibility and I kept my speed down, so I fell at around 4 mph. No damage was done to me or my bicycle.

After going through town I headed up through Cascades Park, where the road follows Cascades Creek for a while. It’s a very pretty area, although none of my photos of that part turned out very well. After that I passed the Tibetan Monastery and made the climb up to Kinser Pike, which goes by the Cascades golf course.

Dagom Gaden Tensung Ling Buddhist Monastery

Climb up Clubhouse Dr.

Cascades Golf Course 

The roads had been in pretty good shape, but once I crossed State Road 37, I was getting further from town and the roads got much sandier. I went more slowly than usual because traction was sketchy and patches of sand could come up unexpectedly. And since I’m not familiar with these roads, turns and hills were unexpected to me as well.

The first part of my ride was deceptively easy, with no major climbs for quite a while. I was cruising along at a pretty good clip through cornfields, passing by farms and rural houses.  I remembered taking a photo in this area in May and tried to get the same shot at this different time of year for comparison. Here are the results:

Field by Bottom Road, February 16, 2008

Field by Bottom Road, May 8, 2007

I think the route I took differed a bit from before, as then we rode by Mount Pleasant Church, which I did not see this time. Next time I may try to include that in my ride as it’s a neat country church.

Riding

New Drainage ditch — notice the clumps of dirt still off to the side of it on the left side

Farm

I got comfortable with the ride being so easy — and then the hills started. There were several good-sized climbs. In one, the sand-covered road climbed gradually, then steepening and going into a turn, followed by some more gradual climbing. It was tough, and I look forward to getting in better shape. But I’m already a strong rider now than I was last May, probably, so this year looks promising for riding. There were also some really nice rolling hills that were a lot of fun.

Sandy, twisting road with rolling hills

There were some electrical or telephone line poles laying on the ground for a while that almost looked like crosses. It was more than a little eerie. They seemed new so I assumed they were waiting to be installed, but they also looked shorter than the existing poles, so I’m not sure what to make of that.

Electrical pole awaiting installation (or crucifix)

I have been mostly avoiding riding new routes this winter, as I sometimes tend to get lost and when the condition of the roads is questionable, it’s really helpful to ride on familiar roads. I lucked out on this ride as all the turns I had to make had street signs, something that isn’t guaranteed when you get to remote areas like this. Many roads on the southwest side of Bloomington in particular don’t have signs. I really enjoyed breaking my routine and trying a different route. It doesn’t hurt that it’s really beautiful country out there. It’s a different area from where I’m used to riding and has its own character, with some great views from hilltops, but also some flat farmland and rolling hills, and roads that more or less follow a creek for miles.  It’s a really interesting combination of terrain.

Barn and tree

Before long I crossed the highway again and found myself in Morgan-Monroe State Forest. At this point I was on familiar terrain again and I stopped to call Sarah and let her know I wouldn’t be home as soon as I’d projected. I believe I was about 25 miles into my ride at this point and estimated it’d be another hour or longer before I got home.  I had at least 15 miles to go.

Trees

Bicycle, forest, road

I picked up the pace a bit, being back on familiar roads, although they remained quite sandy.

Rock face along Old 37

My ride home was pretty uneventful from this point. I took Old 37 to Bethel and took that over to State Road 45, seeing a few other cyclists along the way. I faced a headwind during the last few miles of my ride, but it wasn’t too bad. My front derailleur threw my chain on one climb, and at first I thought I had broken my chain. With a little work I managed to get the chain back on the chainring and finish the ride. All in all, my ride totaled 40.9 miles. My pace was slow at about 15 mph, but I felt good about doing a ride of this distance in February.

Sunday was even warmer, with temperatures above 60 degrees, but I only managed to ride about 4 miles in a couple of neighborhoods. There were high winds at 35 mph, gusting to 45 mph and above, and I had other things to do. Still, it was a good weekend of riding, for February.

I’ve been sick the past couple of days. We had a bit of snow, and yesterday it was warm enough for some, but not all, of the snow to melt.

This morning it was 35 degrees, which felt very warm and comfortable to me.There was a chilling wind, but still, 35 is pretty warm compared to the commuting weather to which I’ve become accustomed. I still felt sort of sick upon departure. The snow on the bike path had melted and then re-frozen, leaving ice of varying thickness and smoothness. I went slow, feathering my rear brake and trying to brake in the few places that had exposed asphalt (the bike path is mostly downhill in this direction).

I tried to ride on the rougher ice toward the sides of the path to increase my traction, and it helped, but I still slid around a lot. Each time I tried to pedal, I found myself fishtailing, especially going uphill. But I managed to keep my front wheel from sliding, and stayed upright. I just let the rear wheel slide beneath me when necessary and it wobbled a bit but ultimately was OK.

By the time I arrived at work, I felt a lot better. It was a really pleasant ride, and I wished I could’ve just tooled around town. Alas, work awaited.