Last night I did one of my coldest commutes ever. Not really absolute temperature wise because I think I've done a commute in colder weather but because I was out for so long in the cold, I was by far the coldest I think I've ever been on a bike. On Monday it snowed a bit (about 3 inches) before turning to freezing rain. Because of this, I decided it wouldn't be wise to ride the road bike home (wisely) and would instead use the Dos and hit up some of the trails on the way to stay off of the slick roads as much as possible. Mission accomplished in one respect. I have now officially figured out how connect the trails behind the office to the Zak preserve trails then it is just a couple miles of road hoffage and I'm into the Schmid Preserve. From there its about 6 miles of roadage. A bit more road than I'd like on a mountain bike but beggers can't be choosers. Anyway, back on topic. Yesterday, because it was so cold (hovering around 15 degrees) I decided to take out a bunch of the trails and do the most direct route traile-wise home. I figured this would take my typical 45 minute road commute and turn it into about 1:15 or so. Unfortunately for me, the new snow with the crusty top turned out to be very difficult to ride in. Sort of like plowing through 6" of sand. Not very pleasant. To top it off, I had forgotten my good light and was relying on my back-up which hadn't been charged in a while so I had no idea of its run time. With that in mind, I rode as far as possible sans light and managed to get as far as the Schmid Preserve before turning on the light for the first time a good 20 mins later than I should have. Once into the preserve I really started to wonder about my decision to ride home. It was definitely too dangerous to stick to the roads all of the way home because my short stint on route 27 was downright scary with an icy breakdown lane and constant traffic. The trial were my safest route but with a light with questionable run time and the cold temps I started to get mildly concerned. To be safe I decided to check my cell phone to be sure I had service. I had a brief moment of concern when I realized my phone was no longer in my jersey pocket but thankfully had fallen out and been caught by the elastic band on my jacket. Phew! Unfortunately though, the cold seemed to have zapped most of the life out of the battery and it was down to zero battery bars showing. Damn, this was turning into one of those stupid stories about some moron who wanders off into the woods in the middle of the winter with nothing but tennis shoes and a windbreaker only to be found in the spring frozen solid. Of course, I was already committed to the ride now so the only thing to do was soldier on. Within about 20 mins I was out of the preserve and back into civilization again and feeling ok and almost enjoying the ride again.
At this point, I shot a quick call to Marcy so that she would know that I was in fact still alive and would be home soon. At the 2 hr mark I pulled into the garage but my hands were so freakin cold that I was initially unable to turn of my flasher lights. 20 minutes, a hot shower and a nice meal (thanks Marcy!) later I was feeling all of my extremeties again. Yippee!
Overall, it was sort of a ridulous ride but looking back at it now it was sort of fun. I don't want to repeat it though.
On another note, below you'll find a Google Earth image of most of the trials located behind my office. There are still a few to map out but its looking pretty nice so far. It has the makings of some really nice lunch rides.
I'm trying to figure out how to allow others to actually go to Google Earth and zoom in and out of this image but no luck so far.
Edit:
Oops, I got in trouble (rightfully so) by wifey for being unprepared for a solo mountain bike ride in the winter so I would like to amend the previous post to say that I was well prepared for the cold temps and had given consideration to what I would do if something unfortunate had happened. I would also like to remind her that my life insurance policy is in affect and she stands to profit handsomely if I ever do kick it while out for a ride. :)
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