Junk Miles

Well, it wasn’t quite new year’s. The winter up til then was cold, but not doing anything else interesting enough to draw me outside during my period of circumsolstitial sloth until we finally got a bit of snow here in the city. So on Sunday the 3rd I ventured forth and rode out to the lighthouse at the enterance to Toronto Harbour.

It was -10°C with a bitter wind, but it didn’t feel too bad on the way out with the wind behind me. I even saw one other biker out by the lighthouse, on a tarck bike no less. There was a river of ice floating out into the great unknown, but we haven’t had any big easterly winds yet when it’s been cold, and that’s when we get the big waves and the interesting ice formations of shore ice. As always between November and March I could hear the old squaw ducks out on the water (they come from the subarctic, and overwinter here).

I aso thought I’d check out the state of the ice on the outer harbour. It looked rideable near shore (and even if it’s not, where I go it’s mostly over shoal water that’s barely deep enough to float a canoe) but I didn’t have studded tires and the soles of my bike shoes are lethally slippery so all I could do was look at it.

SPD shoes are just too damn cold for winter, even at a size too big with 2 pairs of socks. They’re all right when it’s wet or slushy but at -10°C weather all the heat just drains out the cleat. I was starting to get a tiny bit of phalangular frostbite so I went home, the next day I went looking at BMX pedals so I can ride in my snow boots.

Filed under: Rides, Video
Posted By: Adam