Rode out the Minuteman from Arlington Center from Lexington Center this afternoon... except when I walked the bike... which was frequently. Temperatures were in the high 30s with an increasingly assertive sun. The Minuteman was in pretty tough shape in Arlington, with stretches of seriously gnarly rutted ice starting in the short block between Water Street and Mill Street, and recurring at intervals pretty much all the way to Lexington line. Although I had the bike with studded Nokians, much of this was stuff that I dismount for if I see it before I hit it. After awhile, I found myself dismounting for other icy stretches that, earlier in the season, I would have ridden over, and enjoyed the challenge, along with some stuff that I probably would have barely noticed... but I guess I've simply had enough of Winter.
Icy ruts opposite Russell Place: DO NOT WANT!
Then a stretch of seductively bare asphalt...
Then more rough ice, including this mess at the Bike Stop (guess folks will stop one way or the other)...
Some of the hazards were compact...
Some extensive...
Once into Lexington, there was more bare asphalt, but more flooded, icy sections, good for their own sort of fun.
A field of bedraggled snowmen behind the Waldorf School evoked the Zombie film genre.
My eyes tricked my brain into thinking that some of the vegetation in the middle distance is starting to show signs of the coming Spring... wishful thinking, no doubt.
After that, some more ice, then I got to Lexington Center. I had satisfied my curiosity about conditions on the Minuteman (LOUSY), so rode back on Mass. Ave. This was no prize, either, but didn't kill me, didn't waste my time, and only honked at me twice.
When is a bike lane not a bike lane? When it's a parking space. Or covered with snow. Or both.
While passing a bus that was taking on passengers, witnessed the fall of an elderly man trying to board the bus over an ice field. The bus driver rendered assistance. This thaw period has none of the virtues of the cold that preceded it, locking up the water as solid ice, or of the true Spring that is to come. The best thing it can do is get on with it, do its job, and disappear. It's a treacherous time, surfaces cannot be counted on: watch out, everybody!
rod