I took my first bike ride after the big snow-and-ice storm and ensuing deep freeze last week. It was actually fairly warm out this morning (for this winter), with temperatures hovering just a few degrees below freezing. I trotted out my old Specialized Rockhopper for the occasion, which I hadn’t ridden since last winter. The chain had a little bit of surface rust, and could use a good cleaning, but I just shot some lube on it for today. The bike rode fine. I used to ride it year-round, but lately, it has been a winter-only bike. I have two wheelsets for it, one with studded tires, and one with regular tires, and I haven’t used the latter in 2 or 3 years. Since that one is a newer wheelset, I might end up moving the studs over to it, as the 1995-vintage freehub on the old wheelset tends to occasionally “miss” in colder weather. But, I’m going off on a tangent…

I had scoped this morning’s ride out by car on Monday, and determined that it was doable. Back in the day, it wouldn’t even have been a question, but at my current age, I’m more invested in staying upright, and thus a little less adventurous about road riding in adverse conditions. As usual, the best part of the ride was the segment through Patapsco Valley State Park. Most of the roads running through the park, as well as the Grist Mill Trail, were plowed down to bare pavement and in great shape. The exceptions were River Road between the Avalon day-use area and Orange Grove, which had in inch or two of crusty, compacted snow, and the River Road entrance on the Howard County side, which never gets plowed. Typically, after a snowfall, the latter turns into a big mess of icy footprints and bike tire tracks. This snow, though, was so hard and crusty that very little had broken through it in over a week. That will change as it starts to thaw, but with another cold snap coming, we may have several more days of these conditions. The entrance road is mostly downhill, and it’s hard to regulate the speed of the bike in icy conditions, so I put my Yaktrax on and walked it out of an abundance of caution. Once inside the park, River Road was rideable with care. I did stop to walk one or two downhill segments, but by the time I got out near the swinging bridge, I was riding more confidently. It’s been a really long time since we’ve had hard-packed snow like this, and I don’t think it has ever stuck around for as long as it has this winter. It is almost tailor-made for studded tires. Yaktrax and snowshoes work great on it too, and I saw a number of tracks (actually more like indentations) from both.

The river was almost completely frozen over today, with the exception of a narrow area of flowing water around the swinging bridge. Parts of the surface looked like glass, and parts had ice shards that looked kind of like diamonds. It was quite beautiful. I took my time getting to work, and stopped for a few photos along the way. I’m looking forward to the ride back home in a couple of hours.