rule 9a

I was NOT planning on doing a ride today, what with the cold and predicted snow, but Laura OLPH's email said,

If he doesn’t cancel, I’ll be on Ron’s ride out of Washington Crossing at 10:00 a.m.

Well, all right then. So with a certain amount of misgiving, I packed up the bike, put on five layers (well, it wasn't supposed to be above freezing until I was coming home!), and set the car GPS for Washington's Crossing Park. The fact that there appeared to be only a dusting of snow was a hopeful sing, despite the news on the radio about the heavy snow from North Carolina to DC.

Rule 9 of the Velominati: "If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period." My wussiness quotient is high recently; I could use a little badass.

Chris and Ken W joined Laura, Ron, and me.

Uhhh... note the snow on the parking lot? Well, it turned out there was going to be a lot of that.

Ron figured we'd go until we got cold, and then turn around and come back. We headed down the canal towpath towards Trenton. (I later found that Laura was all turned around, and thought we were going the other way, until we actually arrived in Morrisville. I feel vindicated in my perpetual directional disorientation.)

The snow made the day beautiful...

...but treacherous under my cyclocross tires (which I had purposely underinflated).

There were a few places where the path was slippery, and, with the canal just off to one side, I again had visions of pitching over into the gelid water.

I've decided rule 9 needs a corollary, which we can call rule 9a: If you're riding, and you're terrified, and you're still riding, you are ALSO a badass. Because courage doesn't mean you're never scared (people who are never scared are either crazy or stupid). Courage means you're scared to death, and you do it anyway.

We stopped in Morrisville. I'm trying to maintain discipline, so I abstained from my usual junk.

Ron allowed a mutiny to dissuade him from heading back the same route, so we had a case of duelling navigators who led us across the "Trenton Makes" bridge, through the city, the wrong way down a highway entrance, and back to the canal on the New Jersey side. At one point we had to climb an annoying little hill with barriers at the top, the pictures don't do justice to the nastiness:

But the Jersey side is also gorgeous.

And someday I'm actually going to have to clean off the Krakow Monster.

(Most of that melted off in the car on the way home.)