Although this is generally reserved for randonneering items, I've been too busy fighting the weather on my daily commutes these last couple of weeks so I'll post this item from yesterday. The Western Jersey Wheelmen, (ACP Club Code: 930025), holds a "Longest Night" ride every year on the weekend closest to the Winter Solstice as a compliment to their "Longest Day" ride held on the Saturday closest to the Spring Solstice. The Longest Day is a 200 mile ride and the Longest Night is generally whatever distance the the group can make riding on a local bike trail leaving from Clinton, NJ.
Previous rides have encountered icy, snowy, muddy, freezing rain, and sometimes a nice clear trail under a full mood. The snow storm followed by freezing rain the day before last night's ride made for one of the more challenging rides. True to form, I rode my fixed gear commuter bike 12 miles to the start. This ride in itself would have been adventure enough to qualify for the Longest Night as once the freezing rains the previous night had ended, the temperature had dropped into the teens and had never risen above 25 degrees the following day leaving the roads pretty much a packed slush that had been coated over by a layer of slick ice. The photo is a representative photo that I took on my way back. The 700c Nokian Hakkapeliita W106's 35mm performed flawlessly on the ice, with the 106 nickel-carbide studs doing their stuff.
At Clinton I met up with four other riders and we managed to make it approximately 2 miles down the path before we broke out the celebratory "goodies." The conditions were so slow-going that slips and falls were minimal. One pretty pretty much came to a halt even while pedaling. The only observed fall occurred just after the turnaround and may have been attributed more to a little too much "holiday cheer" rather than the deep snow conditions. On the return trip, on some of the softer, deeper stretches, a couple of us found that we could make better time if we just got off of the bikes and walked. This was also a lot less work, as well.
While we all had a great adventure, and will remember the ride with fond memories, all of us were happy to see the ride end safely back in Clinton and rather than meet for the end of the ride meal at Pizza Como, we all opted to part our ways and head home for some warm recovery fluids. My ride back home was pretty much uneventful and I preferred the iced roads - including the 14% climb up out of High Bridge - over 0% grade of the deep snow along the bike path along the old railroad bed.
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