Bike path, after the storms (photos)

[AMM]

As some of you may have heard, we had a few storms up our way recently. There was a heavy, wet snowfall at the end of February, and a very windy rainstorm two weeks later. Both of them took down a lot of tree limbs and a fair number of whole trees. In both cases, it took a week for everyone to get electricity back.

I hadn't been on the bike path near me since it got covered with snow back in January, but since I figured the rain had washed away the ice and snow, I ventured down it a week ago. It was quite a mess, but I was able to make it through. It's evidently been cleaned up a bit, but I thought folks might want to see a little of what the storms wrought, so I tooks some pictures on Sunday (a week after the last storm.) By this time, most of the branches had been dragged off the bike path, either by the Village or by walkers.

I can't say how much of the damage shown here was the snow and how much was the wind, but what you see here is typical of what our area looked like after the storms (well, once they got the tree limbs to the side of the roads.) Many roads were impassable for days.

[skirted_in_SF]

Glad to see you believe in wearing high visibility colors while riding your bike. Too many riders here seem to think that dressing in all black to ride at twilight with no lights is a good idea.

Just curious, is the trail in the third picture a former railroad grade?

[Milfmog]

Looks like the canopy of those woods will be a little thinner this year. If nothing else it will provide more light at ground level for smaller plants and trees and possibly increase the diversity of flora. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I have to confess that I'm impressed that you are able to ride a bicycle in that skirt; it looks like a fairly lightweight fabric and being that flared I would have expected it to fly around to an annoying degree when cycling at any reasonable pace. I would also be concerned about loose fabric catching in the rear wheel. Do you have any techniques that help you manage it, or am I just worrying about imaginary demons?

Have fun,


Ian.

[AMM]

I have to confess that I'm impressed that you are able to ride a bicycle in that skirt; it looks like a fairly lightweight fabric and being that flared I would have expected it to fly around to an annoying degree when cycling at any reasonable pace. I would also be concerned about loose fabric catching in the rear wheel. Do you have any techniques that help you manage it, or am I just worrying about imaginary demons?

No problems. It isn't even all that full.

My usual bicycling skirt is a few inches longer and rather fuller (150" hem), and it (almost) never catches, though it does flap a bit when I go fast.