Already?

I was planning on taking the Scrambler to work, yesterday, so that I could run a couple of quick errands on the way home from work.  I knew that it was supposed to be cold, in the morning, and not warm up too much through the day, so I laid out my warm clothes, Thursday night, and went to bed.

Imagine my surprise when I looked out the door, at 4:45 Friday morning, only to see about a half-inch of snow on the street in front of the house, and more falling all the time.  Nedless to say, that changed my transportation plans.

I put on my wintertime cycling togs, and pulled the Mukluk out of the shop building.  It already had panniers on it, so I thought I could quickly get on the road...

Dang!  No lights on the bike.  So, I spent a few minutes lighting it up, front and rear.  Then, I took off down the snow-covered street.  When I got to the main road, where I cross I-25 on Evans Avenue, the pavement was covered in a very sloppy, wet, slush.  I was pretty happy that I had managed to get the fenders on the Mukluk, a few weeks ago.  The big 4-inch wide tires sure throw that slop around in large quantities.  But, the fenders kept it off of me and the bike, pretty well.

I was running late, riding the bike on which I am my very slowest, so I didn't take the time to stop and get a picture of our first snow of the season.  I wish I had because, when I came home, the snow was all gone and the roads were just wet.  In fact, north of Alameda, the roads were merely wet as I rode to work.  I go down in elevation, and farther into the urban heatsink as I ride to the lab.

On the way home, I was severely over-dressed, and got absolutely drenched in sweat (even though I made a conscious attempt to go slow and avoid that).  My helmet straps and pads were disgusting, when I took the helmet off, so I threw it in the shower and and shampooed it while I was in there.

I'm really liking the Mukluk, and I figure it is in the fleet to stay.  It takes a bit more effort to ride, especially uphill, but that is offset by how much fun I have on it.  Now, if only someone I knew would get one so that we could go Fatbiking together...

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