First snowy adventure ride of the season

[Kevin Gibson]

Here we go, winter is upon us, and the first snowy ride of the season kicked off today.  I had planned a route the night before, not really realizing we'd be waking up to snow cover just about everywhere, and there would be a 40 km/h wind from the south west. 

The ride already started sketchy, as I crashed on my way to the start.  Sure enough, as I was to the side getting the chain back on, every car was spinning their tires as they started up from the yield sign, no wonder it was so slippery. Turns out Dave G did the same thing on the way over too.  I did get to the start, a solid 10 minutes lates, but sure enough, we had three brave souls huddling at the outlet mall entrance waiting for me.  We chatted a little, all agreeing the 80 km big loop was likely a no go, and we chided Alain for e-mailing this morning confirming the ride and then not showing up.

Off we went to the west, taking the turn in the TSC parking lot towards Apple grove very gently. We turn on to Apple Grove, and boom, Chris A goes down. Not a good start.  But he was up quick and we continued. Going west down apple grove, and the wind was right in our faces. I had just switched from my starting gloves (thicker ones) to a lighter pair, and was immediately regretting it.

We made the turn north on Apple Grove, and immediately felt better as the headwind turned to a cross-tail wind. Stopping at the corner with Lobsinger, I switched gloves and we all commented about cold hands despite some heavy duty gloves worn by everyone. Then we turned west on Lobsinger, and the challenge of the planned route became apparent.  The wind was crazy, right into our faces. I couldn't imagine doing this for several hours.

We were all head-down suffering into the wind, and then boom, I went down, and took out Chris behind me.  The shoulder of the road was rippled, and I foolishly rode in a low point that had collected water and froze solid overnight. Chris was ok, I could feel probably a bruise on my hip, but my bibs weren't ripped, so yet again we carried on.

Left onto Martin Creek, and then the side wind was hitting us.  Riding along, I said to the group: "This is so stupid, what the hell are we doing." followed by: "But I love this, I'm having so much fun yet it's so bad out, why do I enjoy this?"  We continued south on Martin Creek, as we strung out, I could see Chris, Dave, and Colin ahead, and their bikes were all leaning over into the cross wind so much it seemed ridiculous.  I kept turning my head to the left, trying to keep the stinging wind off the right side of my face, squinting through the corner of my right eye at the road ahead.

Finally, at the end of Martin Creek, we get a cross the road and into Stamm woodlot.  It was a world of difference.  On the trails of the woodlot, sheltered in the trees, suddenly it didn't feel as cold. My hands weren't going numb anymore.  The trails were snow-covered, but not slippery or icy underneath.  And even if we fell, we knew it would be a much softer landing.

        

We looped around through the woodlot, having some fun, and decided we'd go to Columbia woods, then ride through city trails to Smile Tiger Coffee.  On a whim, we decided to exit Stamm woodlot and do a ride by of Alain's house. The group went rolling by, Dave and I debating and not 100% which house was his, when we suddenly hear excited shouting behind us. We look back, and there's Alain out on his driveway, in his kit, waving us down.  He had been late, looked a bit to intercept the group, then went home.  He just happened to be staring wistfully out the front window as we went by.

So a quick stop in Alain's garage (thankfully out of the wind again) and the quartet of fools became a quintet.

The rest of the ride was such fun.  Just like in the Woodlot - by sticking to city trails (Bearinger trail, the trail behind Laurel Gate Rd, and other small connector trails) we stayed mostly sheltered, and the surface below had mostly good traction.  Nobody crashed again, and no one lost any fingers or toes to frostbite :)

Columbia woods was a blast (as usual) and we looped all over.  The big trouble of the day was getting clipped back into the pedals, as any log-over or steep rise that forced a dismount meant your cleats would get snowy and icy, and be nearly impossible to clip into without lots of shoe banging or stick-poking the sole.

After the fun of Columbia Woods, we picked our way, somewhat randomly, and slightly-lost-at-times, through city trails on a south-east course towards Smile Tiger.  As we got to Uptown Waterloo, Alain and Colin decided to turn back North towards home and a car at the start.  So Dave, Chris and I continued the short ride down Spur Line (ugh - the city salted spur line, so by then it was wet and gross. I would have preferred snow cover in that case).

Now to get my Fatbike ready - maybe the Hydrocut will be open tomorrow?  (In case you missed my point - going slow and in tree cover is a huge plus in my books in the winter)

Kevin

[Alain Francq]

It was the best.

Thanks for swinging by.

A.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WCC General Public" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to general-publi...@waterloocyclingclub.ca.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/a/waterloocyclingclub.ca/group/general-public/.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/waterloocyclingclub.ca/d/msgid/general-public/da73ac6a-01cb-4fc1-a5cd-8b01e8963d58%40waterloocyclingclub.ca.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/waterloocyclingclub.ca/d/optout.