Moronacity

I had a brilliant idea a couple days ago! I decided to act on it an send the following email out to our community cycling list:

It’s going to snow, Sunday. That means one thing: it’s time to ride.

I have some great dirt roads around my house that I’d like to explore. I plan to ride my mountain bike because, well, you never know where you’ll end up.

Group ride – Sunday afternoon – 3:00 – my house. [Directions to my house inserted here.]

This is just a fun, social thing, so don’t be afraid to join in. I’m not looking to set any speed records. Simple appetizer/dessert potluck to follow with coffee and hot cocoa. Nothing big – just fun.

Please let me know if you’re coming.

Thanks!

Di

I didn’t get many responses. One person wanted to come out, but she needed to carpool. No one from her area came. Another person told me he might, but he had to see how the waves were (yes, he said waves). My teammate, Pat, told me he would be there unless it was a hard rain. Well, I purposely chose a day that it was going to snow, so Pat came. Dan was a surprise. He didn’t tell me he was coming, but I was very happy to have him show up.

Once upon a Sunday afternoon, Pat, Dan, and Diane headed out on their expensive, full suspension, mountain race bikes to ride on the snow-covered roads around Di’s house in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Some of you may be shaking your heads and thinking we’re weird just about now. Well, please allow me to clarify: we are weird.

We had a good ride and we were all happy that we met up to do this. I knew that if I didn’t make a commitment to other people, I would not ride. The fact that I chose to do this got Pat and Dan out. We hit a couple of the roads around my house and even hit a short, beautiful stretch of two-track that used to be a trolley line. I had no idea, but it was pretty cool learning that we had a trolley. We hit the snowmobile trail back to my road and braved the crosswind to my house. Dan had to leave right away, but Pat and I sat down for a couple beers, some chips, and a little zucchini bread.

It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon with the sun peaking through the clouds as the snowflakes fell from the sky.

***

I figured I would make note of the weather conditions and the clothing I wore with some comments about how I felt. I thought this might be useful for figuring out what to wear in the future.
* Cycling shorts and cross country ski pants - perfect
* Patagonia medium weight Capilene base layer, Red Jacket cyclocross jersey, light jacket - was great until we hit a crosswind
* Cross country ski gloves - excellent until about an hour into the ride and it got windy
* Thin ski socks, cycling socks, cycling shoes - fine until we hit the crosswind

Weather conditions: 26°F; feels Like 18°F; 8 mph from NNW