Tough sleddin'!!

January has been more "bike-unfriendly" than usual.  It snowed mid-December, and we've had several significant snowstorms since, keeping a beautiful-but-slippery covering on our fair community.  Just now (January 11), the snowpack is starting to scale back a bit.  According to those who keep track of such things, the on-the-ground snow peaked at 15 inches... and it's been more than 30 years since we had that much.

I'm aware of some intrepid cyclists (like Clancy!) who soldiered on... I've definitely scaled back, at least for the past couple weeks.  (I have less than 20 miles total on the bicycle, so far in 2017.  I've been taking the bus to work... a couple times, I stuck my bike on the front and rode home in the afternoon... but the conditions have been marginal, with the super-saturation.  I've been wearing my heavy leather Gore-Tex hiking boots - ankle-high - but when you have to walk in knee-deep slush, the ankle-high boots don't git 'er dun!)

This afternoon - the first day in several weeks where the sun actually peeked out (and temperatures in the high 30s) - we started seeing a bit of dry pavement here and there.  I took a reconnoitering ride, covering part of the route to work, and it's about time to get started again - if the creek don't rise!  (The forecast is for another week or so of cold, but clear, days.  Any farther out than that, I don't pay much attention to the forecast anyway.  I do know this - we've gotten more than the average amount of snow in town for an entire winter, and we still have a couple months to go.)