First snow of the season

[jrenaut]

700X23s for me and I had no trouble, but my commute is entirely on roads heavily trafficked by cars. I guess there are good and bad things to that. I think I have salt in my teeth, though.

[dcv]

Giddy like a schoolboy this morning, swapped to studded tires and hit the trails. Rode with eminva from EFC to Georgetown.

Liz descended like a pro at the S curve of death. Me, on the otherhand, white-knuckling and going slow enough to auto-pause the Garmin (hang head in shame)

[Amalitza]

I wimped out Tuesday due to the combination of cold and wind. My 10:30 meeting lasted through most of my lunch hour yesterday, ruining yesterday’s planned ride. I’m going a little stir crazy. But—I only have bikes with slick tires. Exactly how bad of an idea would it be to ride today? Slightly nuts, or monumentally stupid?

I’m sure the trail is not clear, and roads through town are questionable. Hwy 210 is clear, but the shoulders are not, (and I don’t think I’d enjoy getting splattered by salty road spray from the passing cars anyway) and neighborhood roads look mostly untouched, so riding around town on the roads I guess not the best idea, either. The roads on base, though, look pretty good. Treated and clear, at least the ones getting to my office were completely clear. Very very tempting. I suspect there are some spotty sections, but if I come across anything that looks bad, I could just turn around and go back, not like I’d be trying to get somewhere just out for a ride. But it’s cold and partly cloudy out, should I be very worried about refreezing, even at noon? Or I’ll be fine if I’m careful?

[KayakCyndi]

Some rides in are better than others and today’s was simply awesome! DCV said Giddy, I had termed it Giggly by the time I got in. The Ogre proved a great tool for the job.

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[txgoonie]

29er MTB. Little air outta the tires. It was a blast! Only thing I kinda sorta messed up was going with the snowboard ensemble with my sensitive skin – I didn’t anticipate Goggle Face.

[consularrider]

Like DismalScientist, I was on my old mountain bike with 26 x 1.75 studded Schwalbe Marathon Winters. No slip or slide over the 13 mile ride. However, I did skip a couple of my uphill detours on the 4MRT in Glencarlyn Park and at Columbia Pike. It looked like someone may have wiped out at the west end of the GW overpass bridge from the Roosevelt Island parking lot leading up to the Lynn/Lee intersection of doom (a car had clearly skidded turning into that parking lot – you could see how it slid, hitting the curb near the curb cut we all use!). No evidence of troll activity on the Roosevelt wooden walkway.

[ShawnoftheDread]

No cool trail pics (no one to document when I was on my stomach in Banneker Park), but my bike did get some snow buildup.[ATTACH]2320[/ATTACH]

[jrenaut]

@ShawnoftheDread 41506 wrote:

No cool trail pics (no one to document when I was on my stomach in Banneker Park), but my bike did get some snow buildup.

My bike is definitely hopping in the shower with me tonight. I had to wash the outside of my water bottle when I got to work to get all the salt off so I could actually drink from it, I don’t want to think about how much salt is on my bike.

[KelOnWheels]

Augh, I so jealous! I want to ride in the snooooow!

Cold weather gear should be here tomorrow (except maybe gloves )

[Dirt]

That was fun this morning.

[Dirt]

@consularrider 41504 wrote:

Like DismalScientist, I was on my old mountain bike with 26 x 1.75 studded Schwalbe Marathon Winters. No slip or slide over the 13 mile ride. However, I did skip a couple of my uphill detours on the 4MRT in Glencarlyn Park and at Columbia Pike. It looked like someone may have wiped out at the west end of the GW overpass bridge from the Roosevelt Island parking lot leading up to the Lynn/Lee intersection of doom (a car had clearly skidded turning into that parking lot – you could see how it slid, hitting the curb near the curb cut we all use!). No evidence of troll activity on the Roosevelt wooden walkway.

I saw the tracks of a poor soul near East Falls Church who wiped out three times in 200 yards before walking home. The tracks told the story well… straight line… little wobble… HUGE AREA where they wiped out and cleared away snow…. then back to straight line tracks before the next wobble and crash. There were footprints next to the tire prints walking back away from the last crash sight.

[americancyclo]

The 25s on my metro beater were no match for the hidden chunks of ice or rocks buried under the fluffy blanket of snow on the sidewalk of the West Falls Church Parking lot. What do I get for deviating from my usual route? A ground level view of the snow and new perspective of what my bike looks like laying on the ground. Shoulda stuck to the roads on my normal route. Still fun though!

[consularrider]

@americancyclo 41511 wrote:

The 25s on my metro beater were no match for the hidden chunks of ice or rocks buried under the fluffy blanket of snow on the sidewalk of the West Falls Church Parking lot. What do I get for deviating from my usual route? A ground level view of the snow and new perspective of what my bike looks like laying on the ground. Shoulda stuck to the roads on my normal route. Still fun though!

The worst trail conditions of my ride were on the section of the W&OD next to the I-66 wall from Ohio St to Patrick Henry. The north (westbound) lane had clearly refrozen and had lumpy, crusty ice. For the most part the southern half of the trail was just the white fluffy stuff.

[Bilsko]

Just a little cold this morning (also, sorry for the scary close up – my phone actually bi*%^ched at me about the cold temps so picture taking was not easy this morning.)

[eminva]

@dcv 41497 wrote:

Liz descended like a pro at the S curve of death. Me, on the otherhand, white-knuckling and going slow enough to auto-pause the Garmin (hang head in shame)

I was braking, too, but I didn’t want to brake any harder lest I start skidding. Well, we all made it down safely and that’s the important thing. It doesn’t have to be artistry!

Nice riding with dcv. And fun playing in the snow!

Liz

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