2022 Rides - Week Five

Started off Week Five (and February) with a bit of excitement. 

It was warming up and a bit overcast Monday morning... but an hour or so before we had to head out to a mid-afternoon appointment it started to snow... and then the wind picked up. By the evening, just about EVERY highway in the province had. been closed because visibility had been reduced pretty much to ZERO with all the blowing snow in the blizzard. 

Didn't take any pictures along the way - because we were in a rush. After dropping Keiran off I went downtown to the library... 

Despite the blizzard, all the rick-star-bike-locking locations were full, so I had to lock up around the side of the building (can only just barely make out the fainted shadow of the old Hudson's Bay Company building in the distance! 

Around the corner blowing snow made it hard to see things just at the end of the block or across the street! 

Not a lot of cars parked downtown this afternoon! 

Hey THESE GUYS GET IT!? (In my previous post, in this exact same location, all the cars parked along this stretch were parked in the bike lane - nudged in between the barricades like they thought they denoted where the individual parking spaces were!? 

Did a little ride around just north of downtown while Keiran was in the appointment. 

Normally, here, you'd see the Bessborough Hotel and the Broadway Bridge. 

Took a picture (or...two...?) from this exact same spot last week... no bridge to be seen today!

Bit closet to the weir and Bridge it was visible. 

circling back to pick up Keiran I turned up the 33rd Street Campus Connector Corridor and WOW was there ever a lot of snow and wind whistling down that road! 

Streets in North Park. 

Lots of "Brown Sugar" or Snand" or whatever you call it... that vicious misture of snow and sand that never quite packs down and sits atop froxen packed down and polished ice/snow and squooshes out from unter your tired in random directions pitching you this way or that... unless you're a bike ninja... or riding a Fat Tire bike....  

Heading home. Amanda trailing behind us. 

I take a lot of pictures from this place and usually you can see the far river band and all the buildings and trees... today.... nuthin... 

Amanda out there in the wind. 

got her to take a quick pic of me and Keiran. This is how I've been hauling them around to most places - or at least the ones we ride to. Others we, or they, just walk to... 

snowface/icebeard. 

Tuesday I just didn't go out. The roads would be awful. Not sure if/when the trails would be cleared. AND it was getting colder. A LOT colder. 

By Wednesday...

We were back into the deepfreeze with EXTREME COLD WARNINGs and windchills in the -40s... 

It didn't let up until Saturday.

I've ridden in extreme cold. I did a LOT of riding in extreme cold just in December - trying to meet my goal for the year. But, at the moment,  I'm feeling like if I don't HAVE to go out in weather THAT cold... why would I!? I'm DONE with riding in that cold (if I don't have to) - at least for this winter! 

It wasn't exactly WARM on Saturday, it just wasn't as BRUTALLY cold. 

Roads were awful.

There were sections of the pathways weren't clear and had to be walked/scrambled over. 

I had planned, while Keiran was in dance class, to ride to an adjacent neighbourhood 

So I hung around parks in the neighbourhood which were pretty much devoid of birds... or any life.. 

back through the pedestrian underpass. 

Later in the afternoon I did a library run. 

I started heading back home, but then decided to go for a bit more of a ride and continued on to the south bridge. There were at least half a dozen crows flying around the Grand Trunk Rail Bridge. 

Heading back up the other side of the river - there is a section where the MVA trail disappears because there are houses that own land down to the rivers edge, and so to get back to the MVS trail you have to deke onto Sask Cres. Which, y'know, isn't the worst street to ride down.

I could have turned back at the Senator Buckwold Bridge or Traffic Bridge... but I decided to carry on to the University Bridge, as it was about the time that Amanda should be finishing up her first aid course and heading home. 

Hoped I might run into her crossing the University Bridge. As it turns out I missed her by about a minute... 

Sunday, despite much warmer weather, I was distracted by too many things (not the least of which was doing the latest Birbs of Saskatchetoon drawing: The White-Breasted Nuthatch) didn't end up going out for a ride... 

The weather looks a bit more promising this week. Hopefully, I'll get out for a few more rides! 

January 2022 Rides - Part One

I was a bit more active on this blog last year. It was a lot of fun posting pictures  of my bicycle rambles. The only downside was that I only got around to it about once a month... and by then it was a bit of an ordeal to add context and commentary to the pictures... or I simply forgot where I was and when, exactly...? 

I have decided to do two things this year. 

#1 - Ride 6000Km. I almost rode that much in 2021 (5679Km) - which was 2000Km MORE than I'd rode the previous year (2020) and 1000Km than I rode in 2019. 6000Km in 2022 means riding an average of 100Km/week throughout the year, plus an extra 100Km/week through 8 weeks in the summer. Doable... if I don't slack off in the winter. 

#2 Post pictures of said rides WEEKLY! I thought I'd try and set aside a little time every Sunday to post pictures I took from the weeks rambles and hopefully add some commentary to go with them. 

I actually took the first two days of the year off and didn't leave the house. The previous week had been BRUTALLY cold (windchills reaching -40°C and below!). It was actually MARGINALLY warmer on the Sunday (or maybe the Saturday?), but I needed a break.

I mostly stayed at home and watched birds at the bird feeders. 

...and took some pictures of them. 

Messy little fiends... 

I also started drawing and painting pictures of them... but that's a story for another blog:

Tim's Art Blog: Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Chickadee

Headed out riding again on the 3rd... and it was back into the Deep Freeze! 

Down at the end of the next block they had been digging up the road all week. Water main break? Seems absurd to be doing that since they spent all of last summer putting a brand new one in - blocking off all out streets!? 

Id waited to the late afternoon, hoping it'd get a bit warmer, but I waited too long and by the time I went out a winter storm had whipped up. So muc blowing snow, I coudln't see downtown from Gabriel Dumont Park!? 

By the time I was rolling home, it was getting a bit dark! 

The next day was also bitterly cold, but I needed to get some air (and groceries)!

Spotted some ducks on the river (Common Golden Eye?) 

And my first Magpie of the year  - Later, closer to Preston Crossing (and the grocery store I was headed to), I spotted a gang of about two dozen of them frollicking about in the trees. It was much too exposed and cold to get my phone/camera out  - and they were not staying in any one place long enough to bother...

The day after the snow storm everything was pretty and covered with fresh while snow and frost. 

Pretty. but COLD. 

Up at the Circle Drive bridge where I crossed. 

Looking downtown from Circle Drive bridge. 

The next morning I had to head out for an appointment. I was clear - but cold - and there was so much fog coming off the river, it was just magical. I could have spent all morning taking pictures... but then I'd probably have no fingers anymore - it was painful just stopping to take these! 

When I got home I checked the weather and discovered why... -49 windchill!? 

The next day.... Again with the -49 Windchill!? Decided I should probably just stay indoors as well... 

I do want to keep at the riding and NOT slack off in the colder months... but I also want to be reasonable about this and NOT go out riding in -40 (or below) weather if I REALLY don't HAVE to!? 

Friday I ventured outside again - making a trip to pick up a parcel from UPS (because their driver couldn't be bothered to knock the previous week... when ALL of us were at home...) 

Saturday I made a quick trip downtown to the library. 

I'm not sure if it was warming up... or I'm just getting used to the cold. 

Woke up this morning to see the green bars on Environment Canada's website indicating that a Weather Warning had been lifted - gone was the EXTREME COLD WEATHER WARNING - it had warmed all the way up to -27°C (with a windchill of a balmy -36!).

Of course, I didn't get out for a ride until somewhat later in the day. 

Strava still insisted on calling in an "Afternoon Ride", even though it was getting pretty dark 

New phone takes pretty good pics in low light. 

That's it for this first full week of 2022. 

I managed to ride 65.6Km. A bit shorter than the planned 100Km/week... but considering how cold it's been.... I'm okay with this. it's and AVERAGE of 100Km/week. I'll catch up as we get closer to spring!