Anderson in the Snow

Since the snow fell last week, I'd been thinking about getting out for a ride in it. The sun had hardly shown its face for days and it had been even longer since the temperature rose above freezing, so the ground under the snow was frozen solid.

I pulled off the feathery light but not-so-knobby rubber Santa Cruz stocked on my Nickel, and replaced it with a set of nearly new IRC Trail Bears I had on the rack in the basement. The Bears are 2.25 inches wide with a tread suitably aggressive for soft stuff. From the cabinet in the garage I pulled out my Moose Mitts and my neoprene booties, popped the Nickel onto the van, dumped Quinn at a friend's house, and headed for the trail.

Some of Michigan's bike trails become ski trails in the winter and are closed to bikes for the duration of the season. Others, such as those at Anderson, were built by cyclists for use by cyclists and stay open year round.

At the trail head for the green loop at Anderson Park, I could see that not a single bike had been on the trail since the snow fell a week ago. There were many deer prints and a few sets of human footprints, but no tire tracks. I wasn't even sure this would work. It might be too slick, my tires might just spin, or it might be too hard to keep the bike on the trail, I might slide off and just fall over. I expected the biggest challenge to be simply finding the trail on the snowy forest floor. Anderson Park has no markings on the trees to help the winter user find the way.



Despite my concerns, the ride turned out to be very nice. The snow was pleasantly fluffy and a few inches deep, so it was easy enough to ride in and didn't even stick to my bike. I had some trouble finding the trail in several places, but eventually worked it out, usually by following a gentle hint of contour in the snow, but sometimes only by following the dear tracks, and I managed to ride the entire loop. In one section, after a wrong turn and a little meandering, I found myself back on the trail but riding the wrong direction. One segment of trail was buried under a very large newly fallen tree, which required a bit of bush-wacking to circumnavigate.



It took nearly an hour for me to get around the whole loop, which is about three times as long as usual, but route finding and branch removal made it slow. Anyone who rides it in the days that follow will be able to use my tracks and ride it a bit faster, as long as they watch out for those few places where I took a wrong turn.

Even at 25 degrees, my Moose Mitts kept my hands toasty warm (almost too warm) with a light pair of gloves underneath, and my neoprene booties kept my feet comfortable. On my legs I wore a pair of tights with my bike shorts, and on top a lightweight long-sleeved wool under-layer, a thin long-sleeved running top, and my Gore cycling jacket. With an old wool cap under my helmet I was quite comfortable. When I finished my bike was so clean it hardly looked like I'd been riding.

I only wished I'd had more time.

Almost Christmas?

Probably not unlike the days of most households with school-aged children, our days have been just packed. Piano lessons on Monday night, basketball practice Tuesday night, basketball practice Wednesday night, Cub Scouts Thursday night, and is it ever Friday night? Saturday school and more basketball. Usually some play dates on the weekend, and the occasional trip to the bike trails. House work and chores on Sunday. And the occasional trip to the bike trails.

I changed jobs in mid-October; now I'm trying to work from home a few days a week to avoid a lengthy drive to the office. We bought a second car in early October so that when I do make the 35-mile trip to work I won't leave the rest of the family without. That means, sadly, you lucky readers of the blog won't be reading any more of my rants and complaints about trying to commute to work by bicycle during the winter. Or ever, for that matter. Looks like that era has come to a close. Want to buy a Ute?

Cindy has been working every weekday at Playmakers, along with one weekday evening, usually Monday night, and then all day Saturday. It's a fun job with lots of good perks, so nobody's complaining much. Tonight she's been baking tasty cookies for the coming yearly cookie exchange. More on Cindy later.

Abbey's loving middle school, of course. Made straight A's on the first report card, which is almost a surprise given how haphazardly and disorganizedly she approaches her homework and studying. Of course, she'd have been severely punished for anything less. Her piano and trumpet playing are coming along nicely. We attended her first band concert last week, and were really impressed with the quality of the performance, given the most of the 60 or so members of the band were sixth graders who had been playing for only a couple of months. Band meets every day and the kids are required to practice 20 minutes a day at home. Their efforts were evident.

Quinn is loving and terrorizing second grade. He's had fewer discipline issues this year and seems happier. I think he's making an effort to make good choices even when it goes against the flow, but sometimes the current wins. I can't blame him. Quinn's piano playing is also coming along really well. Occasionally he picks up the trumpet, but we're not really pushing that one yet. After Abbey's band concert, Quinn expressed an interest in the bassoon. Of course, he'd like to be spending more time at the skate park, but it's just hard to fit it all in.

Mostly, I think Cindy and I just try to hang on to all the bits and pieces and loose ends so nothing too critical gets lost as the time train bounces down the tracks. Inevitably we lose a few but we hope the loss is mostly limited to less important stuff like sweeping dog hair off the floor, yard work, washing the car(s), and putting away the kids shoes. It could be a lot worse. Well, the dog hair couldn't.

Finally, some rambling notes about running and bicycling:

On Thanksgiving Day, we all got up and ran the Lansing Turkeyman Trot. That is, Cindy, Abbey, and I ran the 5k. Quinn was kind enough to sit it out this year to keep Grandma Sharon company on the side lines. We were very proud of Abbey for running her first 5k. She and Cindy ran the full distance together. I was too impatient to hold back and run with them, but it was great to watch them finish together. "Watch out, Mom..."

Yesterday we got our first real snow of the year, which was really just a meager 5 inches or so, but it was the latest in the year the snow has held off since we moved to Michigan. This delay allowed us to squeeze in a few late season trail rides despite the fact that my brand new bike frame had to be replaced due to a little tiny crack in a weld. It might have gone years without failing, but Santa Cruz made it really easy for me to swap out the defective frame for a brand new one, and the delay only cost me two weekends of riding. The best part was that I got the opportunity to strip the whole thing down to the frame and rebuild it!

So my new office is 35 miles away from our house and I won't be doing it by bike. That's kind of sad, but if I continue to be able to work from home at least three days a week, I'll actually save time relative to the time spent on the daily commute. The time savings may be nice, but the lack of a daily ride will certainly come at a significant cost to my daily fitness routine. One positive note is that my new office is only three miles away from one of my favorite bike trails, the Murray Lake Trail at Brighton Recreation Area. I'm hopeful that once the snow is gone and the sun stays up past 5, I'll be able to take my Nickel (beautiful isn't it?) with me to work once a week and get in a good ride before I head home. We'll see how often that happens, but it's worth a shot.

What's happened to our tandem cycling? Our poor tandem bikes hardly got off the wall in 2010. A few miles, a few rides here and there. It wasn't really planned, but mountain biking sort of took over this year. Maybe the tandems were one piece that fell from the time train in 2010. In 2009, running took over and the tandems saw less use than in 2007 and 2008. We'd like to keep the tandems and the running and the mountain biking all in the mix (along with everything else), but it's hard to get it all in. We're still trying to shape our picture of 2011. There are as yet no resolutions.

Finally, I guess I should mention that despite our attempt to keep too much from slipping through the cracks, it appears that Cindy has lost track of her mind: last week she signed herself up for the Bayshore Marathon. Memorial Day Weekend 2011. I don't know what made her think this was a good idea, although this event is in a beautiful location up at the north end of our Lower Peninsula on Grand Traverse Bay. She's got a few months to prepare. The rest of the scaq will give her as much support as we can and hope that her effort is successful. It won't be easy!

Finally, risking vain exhibitionism, I'll post this self-portrait. After all, it's my blog, and I can do what I want:



Quinn has almost completed a similar portrait of himself. I hope to post his when it's complete.

Happy Holidays and Good Night.