Using the "Escape Path" to ride to work and back.

Temps from 29-34, overcast mostly and windy.

All my shoveling work paid off this morning. I waited till 0905hrs or so, having just finished putting down some sand and making one final check of the path for ice.

I geared up and rode out of the culdesac using the sidewalk:

First turn is near that street lamp

I then hung a left at the end of the culdesac, still riding on a sidewalk till I got to South Ireland Street, you'll note the street itself is still snow/ice-packed:

Looking West, you can see the street is unusable, at least by me

Once here at the corner of South Jericho Way and South Ireland Street, I paused for a bit then turned North or Right towards the neighborhood exit.

Corner of S. Ireland St. and S. Jericho Way, I make a right turn here

You can see the path I'd cleared to the other sidewalk along S. Ireland Street

The last two pictures are the approach to the neighborhood exit, still using the sidewalk as the streets were covered still with ice and packed snow and I was too chicken to try them. The last picture shows some of the ice that I'd melted to clear a path through the drainage way.

approaching the neighborhood exit, you can see Maria's track in the pic above

some mushy ice on the surface, no issues, note Maria's track

Once I was on the main road past the stop sign, I was in the clear! The roads to work were dry for the most part and I had no further issues until I got to work to find the work parking lot was still pretty much covered with snow and ice. I still went in though and parked Maria in the row nearest the fence. I noticed I rode over some sheets of ice on the way but kept her slow and steady and had no problems.

I stopped, got off the motorcycle and looked around on foot for a good spot to leave her but ended up leaving the parking lot and parking across the street where there's a shopping mall. The mall folks had done a MUCH better job of removing the snow and ice and I left Maria there while I was at work.

I left work at 1500hrs, main roads were dry all the way home still. I retraced the same path I'd used to get out of the neighborhood this morning with no incidents even though I spotted some ice where splashback from the cars had sprinkled the sidewalk! No big deal though, slow and steady won the day and I made it back to my garage safely.

It felt good to be able to ride today to work, it's a bit of an apprehensive riding time but still good to do. More snow expected starting tonight, 2-6 inches accumulation depending on which weather guesser you check with. Oh well.

The pictures in this posting were taken in the afternoon after I'd ridden the path in successfully.