Chrissy B's Most Excellent McKeesport Polar Vortex Ride

4.15.2014 #215 40m 30F

In the end, as it so often is: It's my fault that it was 30 degrees F, windy and blowing snow on April 15th. It's my fault because on April 14th, I carefully put away my underlayers, middlelayers, four sets of gloves, tights, underArmour and chemical warmers, balaclava and buff, etc. I put them all in one duffel bag so that next year I could find them all in one place and not have them scattered hither and yon.

Have you heard the phrase, God is an iron? written by Spider Robinson. It goes like this.

• A glutton is a person who does gluttony
• A felon is a person who does a felony
• God is an iron

It was good that I put all that stuff together in one bag, so I could use them the . next . day.

This was Chrissy B's Most Excellent McKeesport Ride, from Thick on SouthSide to McKeesport via the GAP Trail. Conditions were such that we had the trail pretty much to ourselves (great planning!) This was a good group of riders, very safe and experienced, felt very comfortable riding with them. Chrissy did a nice job setting this up.

Really nice ride, sixteen riders; two tandems, one fat bike. In my own perspective, I felt strong and had teh flow-like-water thing going on the first leg, and then when everybody stopped at the Whittaker Flyover I realized wow, there's a tailwind going on. Trail conditions were excellent, the extremely light snow wasn't accumulating although you could make out the tire tracks on the Riverton Bridge.

Took a turn around McKeesport and then pointed the bikes back into the wind. The group spread out pretty widely on the return trip. I think I was back at Thick around 9.20. In August, I will be wishing for a cold refreshing blast of toe-numbing Arctic air like we had tonight.

The last few miles, the overcast had blown through and it was clear skies and a bright moon, really kind of pretty. A very nice group ride, hopefully closing out the winter riding season. 40 miles.