The big news around here is that the temperature is going to soar above freezing for the next few days before returning to more February-like normals. This has me thinking. I think about the weather a lot in the early months of the year anymore it seems.
It's all due to Trans Iowa. Last year was especially bothersome since we hadn't been able to recon the entire course at all up until early March. Then the wet weather, of course, which turned parts of Iowa into the Land of the Lakes. So I was fretting about weather for months last year.
This year is different, of course. With 90% of the course recon in the bag, we don't have such a heavy burden going into the final months before the event. Yet there is still that last bit of course hanging out there waiting to be looked at. So, it has me wondering- Can I drive it this weekend, or even ride my bike on parts of it.
Some of you are wondering, "What's he worried about? It is on gravel roads, and they are fine. " Well, you'd be mostly correct, but for the sections of B maintenance roads that are in this last section. As you gravel road folks know, B roads can be most anything, from benign barely maintained gravel, to outright primitive scars of clay cut through the Iowa landscape. It is the latter that has me worried. That and the zero maintenance that B roads suffer throughout the winter months. It could be an epic slog through drifts, mud, and slime, or it could be just fine.
So I am going to take a bike down and see if I can make it through on two wheels if necessary. Of course, if the snow is deep and things are blocked up, I won't even get through at all. We'll see, but I feel it necessary to take the chance now while the weather has turned. My instincts tell me there is more winter to come yet.
Stay tuned for a report on the outcome soon.
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