Landmark day! With this morning's commute I celebrated two years since the last time I drove to work. Well, technically Feb. 10th is the day, but seeing as I'm not working tomorrow (and therefore not commuting) I am celebrating today. Kind of like a government holiday.
Coincidentally it's also Winter Bike To Work Day. The only difference to me from every other work day is that I got to stop by a downtown coffee shop for a free coffee and a baked good on my way in.
We got 4" of fresh snow last night. I got up an hour early to plow the driveway before I left for work, and so I would have some extra time for the ride and the coffee stop. 2F this morning with a -13F wind chill. Of course, I had to ride straight into the wind because that's the way it always works.
The back streets were in really bad shape as the plows hadn't yet come through. For the first 1/2 mile of my commute I was worried it was going to take hours to ride the 4 miles to the client location. The 4" of fresh snow on top of the previous snow pack from earlier in the week made it pretty tricky to keep the bike upright. I kept sliding all over the place and couldn't go any faster than about 4 mph. I'm glad that by leaving early I avoided most of the traffic as there was no way I could maintain any sort of straight line. I was using the whole lane weaving back and forth just to keep from laying the bike down.
Thankfully after about 1/2 mile I got to a road where the plows had already come through and got a 1/2 mile reprieve from the treacherous roads. Then I reached the MUP for the next 3 miles which again was unplowed. At least the MUP had less traffic through the snow so it slowed me down but wasn't as much of a struggle to keep the bike on two wheels. It was a tough ride and a lot of work. By the time I got to the office my clothes were drenched in sweat.
I did stop and commemorate the landmark with a photo, though. I snapped about 10 pictures hoping for a good one. This was the best of the bunch and was still a bit out of focus. Apparently my hands are a little shaky in 2F weather with my heart pounding from the physical exertion of riding through the unplowed snow.
