Snow Days

Although we had numerous days of precip last winter, this week has been our single biggest "snow event" for perhaps around a decade. With a couple snows we're sitting on 10" of the white stuff right now, and temps are to plummet to around -10F tonight. I've been off of school for three days, and on two of those I've apprised myself of 3.8" tires to create bike events, however satisfying or frustrating they have been. I also crawled on a snowy roof and almost fell off, but that's a different story

Monday mid-event I went out and found conditions to be taxing. I think we had more snow on the ground (having neglected to go to more than the coffee shop in the morning. Mistake) and I was having a rough time plowing fresh powder. I did a bit of golf course exploring and found it to feel like very deep sand, every revolution 3 steps up. Pant, heave, push, grunt, pant.

After a downhill which comprised of pedaling to keep forward motion, I stopped by to take a couple nice pics of Beargrass Creek and then found that my rear tire was being wonky. I had backed it down, but it felt flatter than it should. Did I really take that much air out?

Long story short, my tire was going flat and eventually went flat. I basically rode/walked home in the mid-teens temps and had a jolly, ol' swell miserable time of it all. Someone on Google+ later informed me that presta valves have a reputation for freezing up and leaking air. I suspect my fiddling might have created such an outcome.

After a miserable time Monday in a pique I didn't ride Tuesday, but instead climb on a snowy, slick roof and tried to remedy a leak behind the wall. The melting ice and snow had created an entry point. The roof itself isn't that high, but I felt stress hormones most of the afternoon after that. Miserable.

This morning I awoke to 2" more of snow. I used El Fatso to head up to the local coffee joint and graded and sipped for a good while, eventually joined by a co-worker. I'm not sure how much grading we actually got done.

This evening L had a long sax lesson- and the wife is cooking chili- so I rode from his teacher's house for a cold, windy snow loop back on the horse. The tire is holding air, so I assume the valve story is holding as well. I found a variety of conditions, with the trail snow and wishy-washy, and many of the streets a soupy, peanut-buttery kind of slickness. It was hard. The following pics are in reverse order. You'll just have to cope.

Down Beargrass Creek Trail, the longest, hardest mile of cycling I've done in a while. It took me 16 minutes when on a good day I do it in under 3. The easiest way to make progress is/was to cut fresh powder in lieu of falling into other folks' tracks.

Camera really didn't do justice to weird sun/sky/snow combo.

PJ and I rode this on Sunday and it was frozen dirty. Not now, and not any time soon.

Snow-covered creek barely visible.