Friday, January 23, 2009

Getting a Ride in before the Snow

So, we're supposed to get snow later this afternoon, a 60% chance of it in fact, 1-2 inches accumulation in the Denver metro area according to the weather guessers.

I worked from home and after my morning phone meetings, got in about 40 minutes of riding with temperatures ranging from 25-30 degrees. You might say it was "brisk". My new Caberg Trip helmet sucks at temperatures below 30 degrees in terms of fogging. I'll "refresh" the coating of "Cat Crap" antifog on the lenses to see if it helps. I had to ride most of the time with the visor cracked open.

I rode Maria, the R1150RT Beemer with her superb wind protection and stayed nice and warm in my riding gear and heated grips on full power. Soon after I left, overcast skies and the incoming weather conspired to rob me of any photo opportunities unfortunately. You could not even see the Rockies behind the fog-like cloud formations rolling in from the west.

I had left the house with just the occasional snow flake fluttering down from the partly sunny sky and dry roads. 40 minutes later is was completely overcast, sleeting pretty good, you could see the ice particles being blown about the road like snow, and the roads were starting to look "moist". Time to head for the barn I said to myself.

The plan for this weekend had been to ride the cage to Steamboat Springs but while I think I'd manage to get there, getting back out after the projected foot or two of snow hit would be dicey and being a contractor I have to work, no vacation for us. Internet access is not the problem, the problem is shelter which I had priced at $150/night which for one night was fine but for an undetermined amount of days? I don't think so.

Steamboat Springs Ski Resort, at 1425hrs 26JAN, note the overcast skies

Here's what the CDOT camera for Steamboat is showing, I'll be monitoring it for the rest of the weekend.

Not bad at all at 1356 hrs MST today, add 1-2 ft of snow, different story!

1 comment:

Jack Riepe said...

Dear Sir:

Once again, I am amazed at your dedication to riding. I am resolved to playing with my trains on the next really bad snow day.

The forecast here this week is for much colder temperatures and snow toward Thursday. I am resloved that ant real riding for me will not occur until shortly before March. And then I'll be sendig the seat pan off to Russell Day-Long Products.

I am commencing some little projects I've wanted to do in the garage (like lining the top case with a thin sheet of neoprene).

I am using this weekend to plan my rides for when the weather gets warmer.

Fondest regards,
Jack
Twisted Roads