Frozen 15 Mile Ride

My car stopped working on 10 days ago (Friday, Dec 12th), and it was towed to the dealership. After a week of wondering why they weren't working on it (knowing so because of an app on my phone showing my car was locked the whole time) even though they said they'd get to it right away, they found an easy answer that they admitted should have been taken care of right away instead of sitting there for 5 extra days. (I was told it was ready 30 mins before they closed on Friday, Dec 19th.) My wife worked this past weekend, so I decided to bike out to the dealership on Saturday afternoon to get my car. It was 15 degrees with 20 mph winds. Yikes.

I grabbed my mountain bike (this is NOT road bike weather!) and figured out the best possible way to get there being I usually use 3 different freeways and highways when going by car. I planned a route and layered up:

The ski mask ended up over my nose after a few feet because it got cold!

The first 4-5 miles on Summit Ave looked this this, with clear traffic lanes but packed snow in the bike lane:

Not slushy, so no problem for an old mountain bike.

I knew the end of Summit Ave was closed (technically it's John Ireland Blvd at that point, and they have taken down a bridge to rebuild it), so I turned on Western to get across I94. But then behind the State Capitol, another bridge was closed that I didn't know about. However, I could sneak around the barrier and walk my bike across (as I couldn't keep it upright in this few inches of uneven snow):

Looking back the way I had come.

I went along the cemetary to Arlington, crossed I35E, and got on the Gateway Trail. It hadn't been plowed from the 1/2 inch of snow we got 2 days before, but it HAD been plowed from the heavier snow from 2 weeks ago, so that was great:

Again, easy riding on my mountain bike!

I turned onto the Bruce Vento trail to head north. The wind was out of the NW, so I was nicely "pushed" down Summit Ave, but the few miles heading north to Arlington was wind IN MY FACE as well as all of the Bruce Vento Trail. I was getting chilly. I took the hand warmers out of my gloves and added them to my shoes (where I already had toe warmers and 2 THICK pairs of socks).

A sweet abandoned go kart / buggy / thingy next to a PRETTY CLEAR Bruce Vento Trail.

I went on that trail until it ended. Near the end, I crossed a bridge over a more major road (before I694), and it was GLARE ICE. I took one pedal stroke and my back wheel spun out. I tried to coast the rest of the way, but the wind blew my back wheel out from under me, and I landed on my feet with my left pedal scraping the trail. That was my only time "crashing," and I landed on my feet without my hand even touching the ground. I "penguin walked" the rest of the way over the bridge, and continued biking.

I finished the last mile or so along the side of Hwy 61:

FAST cars, but very clear and wide shoulders. And there's my destination on the right!

The guys at the dealership were impressed. I just wanted my car so I could turn on the seat warmer and go home. (I often turn it on low for a little while, but this time I had it on high for the ENTIRE drive home.)

15 miles in 15 degree weather with a 20 mph wind.


Uphill for the last half. D'oh. And notice my speed dip at 30 mins
where I had to jog my bike across the snow-covered bridge.


"Strained" the day before the ride (a hard treadmill
workout - more on that shortly), but otherwise a lot of "maintaining."