Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1113:
The wind absolutely howled all last evening and during the night. Every time I woke up I could hear it as a constant rumble, which filled me with a little bit of dread for the ride to work this morning. In all honesty, today was one of those days where if I didn't have a huge streak going I would have thrown in the towel and driven.
Knowing it was going to be a slow ride, I left the house about 20 minutes early.
Temp wasn't bad at 29°F. We had about 3" of snow on the ground and still falling, but the wind was pushing it around so much there were lots of places where the pavement was clear, and lots of places where there were big drifts. The wind was a constant 35 mph, with gusts much, much higher than that. Thankfully it was coming from the NNW, and I was mostly heading SW so other than a few short stretches I didn't have to ride directly into it.
Mile 5 was particularly challenging, as the MUP runs along the south side of a big park full of soccer fields. So the north side of the MUP is completely open, but there are trees lining the south side of the MUP which creates a notorious place for snow to drift. Today was no exception. I hit this area and rode right into a drift that was about two feet deep, which brought me to an immediate stop. The drift was about 1/2 mile long, and I knew there was no way to ride it. I got off the bike and started to push.
It's a huge workout to try and push a fat bike through 2' of snow. After about a 1/4 mile, I came to my senses and left the MUP and cut across the soccer fields for another several hundred yards. It was still unrideable, but the snow wasn't as deep and it gave my heart a chance to catch up. Once I got to the service road the pavement was ridable, so I took that road through the park and then got back on the MUP. The MUP on that end of the park wasn't drifted over
Arrived at the office right on time. About an hour and 20 minutes to go 8 miles. One of my coworkers was arriving at the same time and she wanted me to pose for a photo. A bunch of people opted not to even drive and just work from home today.
Here's a short excerpt of the ride: