No Snow Day filler today - "Challenged to Ride"

The Denver Metro area woke to temps around -2 F° but what developed to be sunny skies after some initial cloud cover. Temperatures steadily rose with the sun and by noon the temperatures were in the mid 30s!

Lots of melting going on of course, thanks mostly to the sun. I was working from home again and had been up most of the night coordinating changes at various airports and reservations centers run by United Airlines.

Around Noon my wife says to me, you should be able to get the bike out today, if you don't then "you're chicken"! She was either kidding or ready to cash in on my insurance policy, not sure which.

Needless to say, the gauntlet had been thrown down and I accepted the challenge. I reconned the escape path I'd been working on the last couple of days and it looked good except for two iced over spots which I salted down and cleared off.

Here's what I used to exit the neighborhood streets which were still snow packed:

The view from the garage, first part of path is the sidewalk going off to the left

At the entrance of the cul-de-sac, looking back towards the garage

From the same corner, now looking to cross the snow packed street

Finally, down this sidewalk to the corner, hang a right and onto the main road

As you can see, a pretty good escape path. I actually did two rides, the first one I used the path depicted above. It was great to get out and ride around for a few miles. I realized as I exited the neighborhood though that I had forgotten my camera! Doh!

Eventually I returned to the neighborhood and elected to ride the snow packed streets back to the cul-de-sac and the garage. Kept my feet out at times as outriggers specially when making turns but it was an uneventful transiting of the snow packed surface! I guess I could have saved myself a lot of shoveling huh?

A better view of the snow packed street I ended up riding on with no issues. I went really slow, mind you, nothing graceful at all.

One last shot of Brigitta before I rode her back into the garage

Anyways, I got into the garage just fine, retrieved my camera and went out for a few more miles of riding. This time I went out and back in staying on the snow packed neighborhood street and somewhat snow-covered cul-de-sac. No problems though the rear tire did slide a teeny bit as I slowed to a stop on Berry Street(mostly dry main road) and slid a bit more when I gave it some gas to get going once the way was clear.

Pretty exhilarating rides today, I spent perhaps an hour riding around. The streets alternated between wet and dry spots but no ice. The intersections were of course always wet, which sometimes gave me pause. Ended up not finding much worthy of a picture or stop, so just rode around. About 30 miles of riding, returned home once the cold penetrated my overpants and gloves.