Hard Core

My riding has tapered just a bit since the snow came. First it was because I didn't have the proper equipment. Once that situation was rectified, there's just been too much snow. I rode on Wednesday and had possibly the worst commute I've had in the last three years. The shoulders on Highway 13 weren't plowed well, the shoulders on Sibley Memorial weren't plowed well. The Mendota bridge was all but impassable. I ended up riding out on the shoulder since MN/Dot couldn't be bothered to clear the bike/ped path until almost a full week after it snowed. For the first time, I really felt unsafe on all the legs of my journey. I took the LRT most of the way to work and most of the way home. And I left the bike in the garage the rest of the week. Here's a shout out to those who are hard core and still bike commute no matter how bad things get. There are others who I know are quietly commuting, but these are the folks currently blogging about it:

Rob, and anybody else who went on the HC ride this morning
Ray, daily rider and complete nutter
Reflector Collector, 90+ consecutive bike commuting days
The Large Fella, and especially Chloe who is harder than most everybody out there
Doug, rockin' the Pug in over a foot of Duluth snow
Everybody at mplsbikelove.com, and anybody else I missed who's hitting the streets of the Twin Cities in some of the worst commuting conditions I've seen. All y'all are hard.


Date: December 5
Mileage: 10
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Raleigh Triumph
December mileage: 10
Year to date mileage: 3793