January 29, 2022
It wasn’t the storm it was forecast to be, but the snow was falling all day – albeit not heavy, sticky flakes – the temperature was in the teens and the wind was blowing 30-mph gusts.
In others words, a perfect day for a bike ride.
The thermometer read 12 degrees, but my online weather chart said it felt like 10 below. So today’s ride would require the full-on gear treatment: top and bottom base layer, five tech over layers, insulated ski gloves, balaclava, two pairs of wool socks, goggles for the eyes and a puffy coat.
Suited up, I headed out toward the Oxbow inlet. Riding was tricky from the start. Roads weren’t yet plowed and tire tracks weren’t any help. All they did was cover the icy patches underneath, so that if you followed them your tires would get jerked around as the icy tracks crossed. Much better was the untrammeled sides of the road with a fresh, four-inch layer of snow.
I nearly toppled over any number of times as I hit hidden ice patches, but managed to stay upright for the two-and-a-half-hour ride.
Slow Ride
I’d already accepted that today’s ride was going to be relatively slow, and that was fine. Paramount for me was staying warm, not how much mileage I would cover.
Staying warm in the sub-zero wind worked out fine once I got working, and pushing tires through the snow provided a good workout. My toes froze but otherwise I was warm head to feet.
The great thing about riding amid a storm is you have the roads almost all to yourself. Very few cars venture out in these conditions, nor should they. Rather, the few people you meet in the middle of a snowstorm are cross-country skiers, some snowmobilers and a few dog walkers.
Seeking Desolation
Once I got out in it, and started having fun, I decided to extend my planned ride and followed the same route I’d ridden a few weeks ago during a dawn ice ride. Through the back roads of the Northampton meadows and down into the isolated field roads running along the Connecticut River.
It’s one of my favorite places to ride in the winter because it’s so desolate and barren. I would have liked to have stopped more and appreciated the desolation and stillness, but it was simply too cold to remain standing in it for long without moving. Out there in the fields the wind gusts and billows freely and swipes at anything in its path. Just stopping for a minute for a drink of water, I could feel the freezing wind eating right through all my layers. Time to move.
I rode up into Northampton and navigated a few empty residential streets back to the rail trail bike path. Even that wasn’t easy riding as it was covered in drifting snow and bumpy with iced footprints.
I worked my way back down to the meadows behind South Street, back past the Oxbow and Arcadia, up to the Manhan bike path and around toward home.
Riding the storm out. It’s the perfect – and different – way to enjoy the snow.