[Nadine]

@Judd 171056 wrote:

Folks that commuted over the 14th Street Bridge late last week may have noticed that the National Park Service cleared snow in LBJ Memorial Grove and the portion of the Mt. Vernon Trail that connects to the 14th Street Bridge. Several folks on the forum put in a lot of work advocating for NPS to do any type of snow clearing. I encourage everyone to provide positive feedback to NPS to help maintain (and hopefully expand) snow removal on the Mt. Vernon trail.

Feedback can be provided through the following:
Phone: 703-419-6400 (Division of Maintenance) 703-289-2500 (Visitor Information line)

Web: http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/index.htm

Email: GWMP_Superintendent@nps.gov and Email Form

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NPSGWMP

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NPSGWMP

My message:
I just wanted to thank the National Park Service for plowing snow in the LBJ Memorial Grove and the portions of the Mt. Vernon trail connecting LBJ to the 14th Street Bridge. As a daily bike commuter, I rely on this connection to get to and from work safely. Although I’d love to see the entire trail cleared after snow, clearing this portion of the trail was vital to me and several other bike commuters being able to get to work last week.

I’ve never seen anything like what they did this year. It seemed to be MOST of the MVT – as well as the W&OD in Arlington & Alexandria! (But they aren’t in charge of any of the W&OD, are they? That’s Arlington & Alexandria I need to thank for those bits, right?)

I went out on both frigid days last weekend (with friends, both times [emoji3] and figured I’d ride out on the Custis and turn around when the MVT got too snowy…. Imagine my surprise on frigid Saturday when we ended up riding the WHOLE LOOP!

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[Nadine]

I agree that Bob should get to keep his ride, though he seems intent on giving it up. Just wait, Bob – there will be a glitch later that balances it out. It might even be before the last day.

It’s a computer glitch gift. Easier to take it now than to make someone “fix” it and then fix the next thing that happens to you that’s not in your favor… Take it! If somehow you don’t get an error later that penalizes you, and it looks like this ride is gonna make some kinda difference, you can revisit it then….

Miss you! And glad you’re still participating from afar!

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[Nadine]

@cvcalhoun 171109 wrote:

We were talking about a Garmin (which is pretty much impervious to moisture), not a phone. Although in this weather, excessive sweating doesn’t tend to be a big issue, anyway.

…. Course for some of us our bike computer IS our phone….. [emoji28]

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[Nadine]

@chuxtr 171064 wrote:

https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/features/pez-bookshelf-the-cyclist-who-went-out-in-the-cold/#.WlNtRcIUmYU

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16074[/ATTACH]

Oooh nice! Have you read it? I just put it on hold @ the library….

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[Nadine]

@MarkinDC 170914 wrote:

….. if I weren’t participating in FS these are trips I would have otherwise walked or taken the bus, but I don’t want to bring down my future team and have no points for the week so I turn on my Garmin and hop on a bikeshare.

Welcome to freezing saddles, MarkinDC!
This ^^ that you said here is my understanding of one of the main points of FS – to get people to ride when they otherwise wouldn’t.

Though personally I’ve gotten SO MUCH MORE* out of it than that… But what you described above happens to me too, and though I’ve biked through the winter for as long as I can remember, I bike MORE in winter now, BOTH mileage – wise and every day I can, because of the points-for-my-team thing and because I now have a bigger & more motivated pool of people to suck into riding with me! (when it’s not for transportation.)

---

* Idk if you’re interested, but I’m verbose, so I’ll tell you…. The BIG thing I get out of freezing saddles is the community of cheery like minded people, always inviting the rest of us on rides that are always fun and often silly and informative. It’s just wonderful.

And in that spirit, I hope you find a whole lot more than your competitive spirit is driving you to… Though you’ll get that too! [emoji1]

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[Nadine]

@Steve O 169984 wrote:

The bags the newspaper comes in works well for this. You can either pull it all the way up to your calf, or cut them off to only cover your foot. When I use this strategy, I put the bag between my two pairs of socks: sock-bag-sock-shoe

I’ve been using the newspaper bag trick for decades, but only for rain. Never thought of it for cold though. But sometimes it makes my feet sweat, so I wouldn’t think it’d be good for a ride of more than 5-10 miles. Is it?

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[Nadine]

@Steve O 169984 wrote:

The bags the newspaper comes in works well for this. You can either pull it all the way up to your calf, or cut them off to only cover your foot. When I use this strategy, I put the bag between my two pairs of socks: sock-bag-sock-shoe

I’ve been using the newspaper bag trick for decades, but only for rain. Never thought of it for cold though. But sometimes it makes my feet sweat, so I wouldn’t think it’d be good for a ride of more than 5-10 miles. Is it?

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[Nadine]

@kwarkentien 170076 wrote:

What a great idea. And the bonus is you have a beer cozy when you get to your mid-ride beer stop and one to share!

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Two! This is neat idea, Edelweiss! I never woulda thunk!

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[Nadine]

@cvcalhoun 170001 wrote:

Yeah, but I’ve been trying to grow one since 1953, and it hasn’t worked yet.

Hahaha I was gonna SAY!

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[Nadine]

@cvcalhoun 168555 wrote:

My wife is convinced that anyone biking at all is crazy.

My husband thinks I’m nuts because I bike through the winter. (For the record I don’t like winter. But I won’t let it keep me from biking too!) Anyhow the first year I did FS I found myself smack dab in the middle of the leaderboard – and no matter how hard I worked, that’s where I stayed. And then i realized I was looking at that leaderboard all wrong.

So I showed it to my husband and said “Look, Honey. I’m only in the middle of nuts!”[emoji28]

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[Nadine]

@JonRobot 168517 wrote:

woohoo! i’m registered and this year when i asked my wife if she wanted to join she moved up from “what are you insane?” to “no thanks”!

only a couple years until she says maybe!

Hahaha love it!

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[Nadine]

@reji 168366 wrote:

Registered and signed up to be a captain this year.

Sunyata, wanna go for some beers … my treat? 😎

[emoji2]

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[Nadine]

@Dazed Elf Singers 168395 wrote:

Dazed Elf Singers was the best anagram for Freezing Saddles I could come up with. Let’s go for a bike ride!

Pete?

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[Nadine]

@cvcalhoun 168377 wrote:

The first step is admitting that you have a problem. With, um, reindeer?

[emoji28]

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[Nadine]

@jrenaut 167433 wrote:

Strangely, I’ve never had anyone stop me for being weird. Not even that time I met a participant neighbor at 12:01AM at a CaBi station to ride around the block in flurries before a big snowstorm the next day. That is definitely a life goal, though

Hahaha my neighbors KNOW I’m weird.
And I’ve been riding in winter for years, but it used to be kinda lonely… I LOVE FREEZING SADDLES!!!

I don’t love winter – but it’s so much better with biking. And YOU guys! (Except I don’t know who half of the people are on this thread…. though I suspect I might know more of them than I realize if I could decode their usernames. Or if they’d sign their posts like Jeff did. 😆

I live in fear that I’ll forget to check here in time and miss the chance to sign up. Oh and I think I got a coupla new recruits via babes on Bikes.

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