The Better Half of Valor

2/21/11 #228.4
2 miles, snow

I am a hedonistic procrastinator, in that I will put off a ride on a cold day until it is time that I have to go or I will lose the chance to ride. On today's lovely afternoon, clear skies after noon, I waited and pissed away my time until it was 3.15 pm, at which I start putting on all the clothing involved with winter riding. It had started to snow, and my Good Spouse said to me, "You looked outside yet?"

It was in fact snowing, and then it was snowing pretty good, and there was 1/2 inch on the ground pretty quickly. I looked at the radar on Weather.com and we were under a blue patch of snow, more dark blue than the white blue I'd hoped for.

I continued dressing, protested that I'd stay off the main roads, duly noted the SOFTR (Spousal Objection For The Record), and got out in the snow. There was about 3/4 inch on the road by that time.

It was a great ride, very quiet, no traffic. Down the first valley, up the first hill which is kind of steep, and that's when the fun started - the cars couldn't make it up the hill. They kept advancing slowly, then shimmied laterally for a while while sliding backwards on the hill. Some drivers kept trying it, allowing themselves to move more sideways, and other drivers seemed to put it in Park.

My trusty bike was doing well up the hill, and I just kept pedalling, but then as I approached a car that was alternatively stopped and shimmying I got off to walk around it. Got back on the bike, climbed up the rest of the hill, rode around a few cars that were stuck on the road.

I'm not sure why they were stuck, there couldn't have been any more than one inch of snow. Perhaps they had bald tires, but there were easily 6 or 7 of them not getting up that hill.

I thought about the shimmying they were doing in their 3000 pound cages and decided that for me, today, discretion was the better half of valor. I rode down the hill, up the valley on the other side, and made it home quite easily, although I saw a few more sliding cars.

It was a great ride, very quiet as it gets in a heavy snowfall, and the bike did real well. I only logged 2 miles, but I got to climb two good hills, and it was a small adventure.