Messages from the Pale Blue Dot

"'The Winter Thaw,' She Called It" Ride

It was not so cold in Cold Spring, NY this morning when I rode through on my way up along the Hudson River from Haverstraw to Poughkeepsie. In the little store, where I stopped for some coffee and to stretch, the lady said, "Good day for a bike ride. It's the Winter Thaw." And, so it was. A lovely, respite from the bone chilling cold of last week and an excellent opportunity to test out the repaired knee on some real hills.

Out of the house just after 6:15 and on the Metro-North train from Grand Central by 6:41 bound for Ossining. This is a shot of the ferry from there, across the Hudson River at dawn to Haverstraw, where the ride began. I followed the river along the western shore, up to Bear Mountain Bridge, crossing over to the other side for the final push towards Poughkeepsie, turning inland at Cold Spring and up through the hills.

In all, 46.32 miles in just over three hours (not counting the ferry ride) with an average speed of 15 mph. 2419 feet of vertical climbing, none of which affected my knee at all. While it was a bit stiff getting out of the saddle early in the ride, it warmed up nicely, seeming to have cleared up anything that was remnants of the arthroscopy. There are good pains and bad pains and this was a tightness that may just have needed the full stress on the joint (a good pain) to "settle in." By the time I hit the outskirts of Poughkeepsie, I was climbing at 18 mph, rushing to get to the train station in time for the 11:33, arriving at 11:22 with more than enough time to spare than I had thought just six or eight miles out of town. A lovely ride on a rare "thaw" day in January.

Early Winter Rides in Manhattan

Following the Southern Solstice (when the sun is over the Tropic of Capricorn), winter can be fickle in Central Park. With the average morning temperature hovering around freezing, there are the rare mornings when it can be warm enough to ride, but just barely. Some years, the snows come early, leaving a hard layer of ice and snow caked on the 10 km loop, so that even when the temperature gets up around 2-3 degrees, it is impossible to ride. Then there are those mornings when the roads look dry, but danger lurks on the hills in the northwest corner of the park, where snow runoff from the hills can dampen the roads just enough during the day so that the water turns into black ice overnight. At 35 km per hour on skinny tires, you don't want to hit patches of shiny tarmac.

But, this year, after coming back from Bali, the weather gods have cooperated and I've been testing my new knee by getting out into the Park on every dry morning when the temperature has been over 2 degrees (35 farenheit.) Anything colder than that risks black ice and frozen fingers.

22 December 2007

24 December 2007

25 December 2007

30 December 2007

1 January 2008

Today, on New Year's morning, I woke early to check on the weather. The roads were dry, the temperative well above freezing but with a big storm approaching from the southwest. The storm tracker at Acuweather showed that I probably had about an hour and a half before the rain would hit and the temperatures would drop below freezing for the next few days. This might be my last chance at a ride until next week.

On my third lap of Central Park, the first drops began to fall. I bailed out to the east at about 96th Street, headed over to Second Avenue and rode south before the deluge. It is expected to rain through the day and snow tonight and it may be another week until the weather improves enough to get back out on the roads.

New York is such an absorbent town. Last night, there were as many as a million people in the streets just fifteen blocks from our apartment, celebrating the start of 2008. We watched on TV, but we could have been in Des Moines or Denver, since there was no indication at 55th and Second Avenue. No noise, no crowds. Pam, Sam, Kai and I crowded into bed waiting for the ball to drop, as is our annual tradition. However, as the boys are getting bigger, the bed seems smaller each year.

Choices. The choice last night was to hang out at home with the family, no booze and no partying in the streets although the scene was only blocks away. The payoff was getting up at 6:00 am with a clear head and squeezing in the first bike ride of 2008 before the blustery winds and cold downpour. Good choice.