March In Like a Lion Rides

[Crankin]

Damage here is a lot worse than I thought. Not for us, but all around me. Trees down everywhere, and some on electric wires. DH went for a walk when I was at work and he said the large neighborhood next to our street is like a war zone. Many of the streets are closed in neighboring towns, and a few in Concord. The main road in my old town was closed this morning; it connects to I-495, so it's a busy, yet rural street. I am glad I didn't xc ski today,because only the fields are open at the local center. The wooded trails have too many trees down.
On a positive note, there has been 2.5 feet of snow in Woodford, VT, where I am going tomorrow. I just watched a video of them grooming. I will be in heaven.

As far as the bike material, you are right, NY. I think what happened to you is very rare. I've had 3 carbon bikes, crashed them all, and have had no issues. I love the feel of my titanium bike, too. It's just a different smooth feeling, compared to the carbon smooth feeling. It is similar to steel, but the only steel bike I've had was a lower end one, the Jamis Coda. My next bike, an around town bike, will probably be aluminum or steel.

[rebeccaC]

Spent a couple of days doing renewable energy policy work on the Navajo Nation in Arizona last week. The environmental preservation in the Navajo’s Diné cultural teachings has made such positive contributions to their development of renewable sources of energy and makes, for me, very rewarding conversations with tribal members.
Anyway….the trip also gave me the opportunity to do some hiking in Bryce Canyon on the way back......and more importantly to spend a whole day bicycling, hiking and photographing in Nevada’s Valley of Fire state park with two friends from Las Vegas. Few vehicles this time of year, temps in the high 60’s and natures surrounding beauty made for an excellent day.

Bryce





Valley of Fire









Navajo Nation

[emily_in_nc]

Stunning photos, Rebecca!

We enjoyed hiking in Bryce Canyon way back in 2006. So beautiful! Have never been to the Valley of Fire state park. It looks gorgeous! And the lack of motor vehicle traffic is a huge plus. Most parks seem to have narrow roads with no shoulders, so it's always a huge plus to get to ride when traffic is low.

[rebeccaC]

Thanks Emily!!! Bryce is one of my favorite hiking areas….so beautiful!!

This is towards the end of the season of having a good ride in the Valley of Fire with its moderate temps now and low traffic and riding on a weekday helps too….and yeah, no shoulder could make for a nervous tension during more vehicle times of the year. Another consideration is the immense silence of the park and it being easy to hear vehicles approaching from farther behind. It was also probably my last desert ride until next fall.

It’s a rainy day here at home so Alex and I are just going to relax and enjoy being together today.

[north woods gal]

Breathtaking! I have never been there. I must remedy that.

As for me, back home, today, was my first all road ride of the year. Yippeee! Not a long ride at only 15 miles, but most of that was a sprint and I pushed it a bit, so happy I was to be out on the open road, again. Our local roads are down to dry pavement with only an occasional patch of ice which I can ride around. Dug the Surly Krampus out of our outdoor storage shed and got everything adjusted and ready to go, then off I went. Still have a lot off sand and gravel on the roads from winter maintenance, but the 3" tires on the Krampus handle that with ease. Gravel roads and secondary roads are still a fat bike, only, proposition for now.

I'm preaching to the choir, of course, but I really missed flying down the open road with no concern about techy riding or frantic gear changes and all the other challenges of trail work. So nice and relaxing to just breeze down the open road with just my thoughts and nice scenery for company. Really missed that kind of riding over the winter. I will do more road miles, this year.

[north woods gal]

As much as I hated not to ride my trails, today, they are now too many long sections that are nothing but ice and, worse than that, ice with standing water in spots. There's only so much that studded tires can do. Even bicycling out of our long driveway to go road riding is getting tricky, now. There's also a long stretch of pure ice, there. It's all caused by day after day of temps getting just high enough to melt some packed snow, then dropping again, at night, to freeze and cause ice.

Seems I can't escape it. Went for a nice road ride of 15 miles, again, on dry pavement. Decided I had gone far enough, so made a turn into a wildlife area parking lot to reverse direction. Big mistake. Yup, you guessed it. I hit a patch of ice that was covered with a light dusting of snow. Me and the Krampus had no chance. We went down in a flash. Hurt my left ankle in the fall, but not enough to prevent me from pedaling, home. Just a touch sore, this morning, but barely notice it, now.

I am SOOO tired of ice.

On a more positive note, had a pair of Lincoln's Sparrows land for an instant outside our window, this morning. The Lincoln's is an uncommon migrant for us, so a sure sign of spring. Lovely little bird.

[emily_in_nc]

NWG, hope your ankle heals up fast. Ice would not be fun -- have rarely experienced it on a bike (perhaps never), but certainly in a car during NC winters. Not fun! Hope the ice melts soon, or gets covered up with enough snow that it is not an issue!

[north woods gal]

Thanks, Emily. The ankle is fine this morning, but, please, no more snow. I've had enough and now that my trails are closed for the moment, I need our local roads to stay free of snow in the meantime. Most of our paved roads are now ice free, but some of the less traveled ones still have ice in patches. Sure is nice getting out to ride and see different country, though, after a long winter riding the same old trails.

Compared to last winter, this one has been much more north woods traditional, meaning long sustained cold and lots of snow. My notes show that this date, last March, I was actually able to put my canoe in the lake and do a little paddling, since about half the lake was open water. This winter, no way. The lake hasn't even begun to melt and is still covered in deep snow.

[ny biker]

The early-blooming trees around here have pink flowers on them but it is still cold, more like January than March and really I am just so over this cold wind that we have almost every day. Pollen allergies plus winter weather. Boo. The long-range forecast says more of the same next week and possibly some snow from yet another nor'easter. Next Saturday I will go to a march in DC and it will be colder than it was for the Women's March in January. Tomorrow I'm going to a college baseball game to see my nephew and it will be football weather. This is just nuts.

I am focused on getting other things done, like income taxes and packing up the small stuff in advance of new floors being installed in my condo. And writing emails to send to bike club members about various upcoming events and then figuring out how to use our web host's software to layout the emails and send them. And going to things like nephew's baseball games and marches in DC.

Maybe someday I will ride my bicycle again.

One good thing -- I managed to go out for a short walk around my neighborhood last night, and a slightly longer walk on Sunday night, thanks to short breaks from the cold wind. I wore a hat to cover my hair (keep the pollen out of it) as my neighborhood is full of pollen-spewing cedar trees. And I did not wake up with flaming red itchy eyes on Monday or today. So whenever this ridiculous winter weather passes, I should be able to ride my bike without too much of an allergic reaction.

[Crankin]

Same weather here. It's 38-40, but with a stiff breeze. Weekend high to be 32. I so want one more weekend of xc skiing, or to be able to ride my bike, but tomorrow I have a workshop. It will be good, but I have to take the train to Cambridge and walk in the freezing cold wind for a few blocks. My granddaughter is sleeping over on Sat. night, so unless I go to 7:30 AM spin, I'll be snow shoeing or hiking Sunday afternoon. My friends just arrived up in Bennington, where I was last weekend, and there's *70* inches of snow.
We are going to get hit again, Tues. night into Wednesday, so I may be skiing next weekend, as north of here it's still great.

[emily_in_nc]

Agree with all of you, this March has been really cold by normal standards. This is our third March in central Florida and by far the coldest. February was super warm, lots of rides in just shorts and a SS or even sleeveless jersey, and this month, we've missed many days we'd hoped to ride because it was just too cold and windy for we wimps! For instance: We rode last Sunday, a warm day (shorts and SS jerseys), then missed all week until today, when we just couldn't take it anymore. So, we bundled up -- leg & arm warmers, wool socks, wind jacket -- and headed out. Temps in the 50s with a chilly wind off the lake. Fortunately, with the sun, it did warm up, and over time I peeled off all but the arm warmers.

When we got back to the RV park at around 1:15, it was "only" 70 degrees. With a breeze and the desert-like humidity we've been experiencing lately, it still felt a wee bit chilly. Finally at nearly 5 pm, it's 77 degrees. If we were willing to start our rides in the afternoons, we'd do much better, but traffic is so much worse, we just hate to do that. We aim to start around 10:00am this time of year, but in Feb's warm temps, we often got out earlier. Today was 10:45.

With it being this chilly in Florida, I know it's lots colder than usual for most of you. Hopefully this will soon be behind us, but I do see another "norte" coming through mid-next week here, after a warm up for a few days.

[ny biker]

This Sunday might be okay here, weather-wise. It will depend on the wind. I had thought I'd be busy with family activities but there's been a change of plans, so it looks like now I might have a chance to get out for a short ride. A friend is leading a club ride but it's twice as far as I would want to go starts in the morning when it will still be cold. I will wait until tomorrow night or Sunday morning to decide.

[north woods gal]

Honestly, I think the March weather has actually been worse for you folks in the New England area than it has been for me, up here in the frozen north and March for us is still a winter month. I feel for you, I really do. I worry about everyone being safe, too. Please take care. I'm praying foursome spring weather, but I'll add you in those prayers.

Hey, I found the perfect bike for my gravel riding, but now I've learned that it has been completely sold out for2018 and here it is only March. Just nuts.

My trails are now turning as much muddy as icy, now that the melting slowly continues. Mud, ice, packed snow, all in one ride. Its a mountain biker/fat bikers dream.

[north woods gal]

Just to let everyone know, I am not trying to rub it in with you folks that are having tough weather. I hope all are safe. Today, for us, though was gorgeous. Highs in the upper 40s, all sunshine and NO wind.

Plan A was to ride the trails. That was a bust. Got about ten yards on the ice and called it quits. The ice was absolutely treacherous. Even the studded tires were slipping. Love my trail riding, but not worth the risk of a bad spill. Went to plan B.

Plan B was heading out on our paved roads for a long ride on the Krampus with its tall 29x3" wheels. Did 26.3 miles, total, all pavement. Longest ride, so far, this spring. Loved it. Our paved roads are all nearly clear of ice, now, with only a scattered patch of ice, here and there, and nothing I couldn't ride around. (Of course, that's only going to last until the next snow storm. )

No, the Krampus is no speed demon - my average speed wasn't all that great - but those tall, wide wheels do have their advantages. One is that those tall wheels hold their speed better than smaller road bike wheels. That means a LOT less shifting once I get up to speed. Seriously, compared to a standard 700x25 road bike wheel, I reduce the need to shift by about half in the rolling hills I ride. Hard to appreciate if you've never ridden big wheels out on the road for any distance, but it's true.

Another advantage, of course, is comfort. Those big wheels take the bite out of the worst any paved road has to offer and they are oh, so stable. The bike sometimes feels like it's steering, itself.

Another plus is the ability to safely deal with sand and road debris. In fact, I can bounce back and forth from the road to the gravel shoulder anytime I want. That comes in real handy as a safety feature, sometimes.

Still, I do want to have something a little faster and bit more paved road friendly, even though I really don't need such a bike. The Krampus, after all, is a dedicated trail bike, not a road bike. Still, with the easy rolling tires I use on the Krampus, I could ride the Krampus all day long on the roads. Just wouldn't get as far or go as fast.

Hope everyone gets a chance to ride, this coming week. Happy St. Patty's day.

[Crankin]

Looks like the midweek storm is not going to be a big snow event here. The end of it on Thursday might glance us with rain/snow, but mostly on the Cape and Boston. Friday I may be able to ride to work, although I have to be there at 9 and it will still be in the 30s (not that I don't have the gear). The huge amount of snow has melted, but it's been *really* cold the past 2 days, 12 degrees this morning, so a lot still there.
Here's hoping the week after this one will be more temperate.