light in the darkness

I'm sure the people who put lights on their evergreen trees are not thinking about winter bicycle commuters, but they definitely make our ride a little more enjoyable!

Today I stopped to snap photos of some of the bright spots along my route.

 

Monday morning blues -- problem solved

Normally I like Mondays. I've never really understood people who don't. 

To me, Monday is the start of a new week, a day full of possibilities.

But I have to confess that I felt a little different this Monday. Fresh snow (maybe 3-5 cm) and a temperature well below zero made me wonder what riding conditions would be like. Never mind driving conditions. And sure enough, the drive into the west end was     s-l-o-w, thanks to a crash on the Yellowhead, which meant that traffic was diverted to 16A. 

Running a bit late and fearing that the shared pathway on 100 Avenue would not be cleared, I decided to park in Crestwood.

The bridge leading to Stony Plain Road was cleared right down to the boards -- a good start to my ride -- but it pretty much went downhill after that. A few sidewalks had been cleared, but the streets and any sidewalks under the city's purview were in rough shape. 

So I decided to cheer myself up by snapping photos of my bike at the bright spots along the way -- like these three trees on 132 Street:

and one of the tall, tall trees (there are two) at the High Street shopping centre:

I ended my commute by doing something I almost never (well, really absolutely never) do: riding on the sidewalk, on the wrong side of the street. This sidewalk was so beautifully clear of snow that I simply couldn't resist and I have to confess that I didn't even feel one bit guilty.  

My commute today was a little slow and a little frustrating -- and the ride back to the car after work was slightly worse, thanks to warmer temperatures -- but still I end my day thankful for the exercise, glad I can ride instead of driving all the way, and warmed by the thought of those cheerfully-lit trees that brighten my path!

December 12 -- the week on the bike

Now that the dust -- or should I say snow -- has settled, riding is not so bad. I still wish the city would do a better job of snow removal, especially on bike routes and main street sidewalks, but on the whole it was a pleasant week of riding. It has been between -5 and +4 everyday, so not too cold, but also not warm enough to create any serious slush.

After work on Tuesday I met Gillian, a thirty-something first-winter rider. We stopped for a chat in the little park that forms part of the bike route and the bridge detour north of 102 Avenue. We both agreed that so far this has been a great winter for cycling, but also that the city really should clear that route; the park is bladed nicely but the adjacent streets are so snow-covered and mushy that riding is virtually impossible, causing cyclists to hop onto the sidewalks.  The bike route signs on this stretch seem like a sick joke at times like these!

Every morning I see at least two or three other cycle commuters and I often see a few on my way home as well. This is the perfect winter for people to try it out, and it looks like that's what's happening.

One disappointment: the city has chosen to close the shared sidewalk on 100 Avenue across from Safeway. There is some construction that has been going on for months, and all of a sudden in the middle of winter, they decide they need to close the sidewalk? Go figure.

November 25 - another snowy ride

November 25 -- not much better!

Again I left home at about ten to seven. Surely today will be better, I thought. WRONG! Apparently there was a crash on the Yellowhead, so 16A was also affected. I felt lucky when I was able to go 30 km/hour for the first half of my drive into Edmonton.

I finally hit the westernmost end of the city at about 8:00. Again the question arose -- where should I park? I knew I didn't have time to ride all the way from Glenwood, but what about Crestwood? Hmmm, I wasn't sure. So I decided to drive into Glenora and park there. I am not sure that was a good decision; maybe Crestwood would have been better, but once I drove past 149 Street I was committed. 

Between the packed roads and cleared or snow-packed sidewalks, riding my chubby-tired bike, I made pretty good time and arrived at the corner of 109 Street and 100 Avenue at about 8:45. 

As I stood waiting for the light to change, I noticed a young guy looking at me and my bike with an unfathomable expression on his face. Finally he spoke: "I saw you riding on Stony Plain Road," he said. "I recognize your bike. I was in my car, and you got here before me." 

Let's hear it for commuting by bike!! 

Winter ride: November 24 - 24 centimeters of snow

Actually they said on the radio that it was 25 centimeters, 

but the 24 - 24 is catchier!

It was quite a day of riding.

MORNING:
First, I had to drive into the city from Spruce Grove. That did not go so well. It normally takes me 20-25 minutes to drive to my parking spot in Glenwood. Because of the heavy snow today, I had decided to park a little closer to work, in Crestwood, another five minutes east on 100 Avenue.

I left home at about 6:50 a.m., and I reached the parking spot at about 8:00. 

Oh well, I thought, even if I get to work at 8:45, it will be OK. I got my bike set up and seeing that the ravine trail was deep with snow, I rode across the pedestrian bridge to Stony Plain Road. The sidewalk was covered in ankle-deep snow, so I started out by pushing my bike along, thinking I'd hop on and ride as soon as I reached a cleared section. But it didn't take long before I realized that a cleared section was not going to happen. 

Enter Plan B -- the bus. This has always been my contingency plan: I know that all the city buses have bike racks on the front, so I have always figured that if I got a flat or otherwise had a problem with my bike, I could catch a bus. I carry a supply of toonies, loonies, quarters and nickels specifically for that purpose. 

There was a bus stop a few steps away, and the bus came almost at once, so I thought I was lucky. I smiled at the bus driver, a sweet-looking blonde woman, and indicated that I was going to put my bike on the rack. She replied by heaving a sigh and rolling her eyes. Nice. Oh well, I wasn't going to let her make me feel bad. It was that kind of day. 

But when I went to put my bike on the rack, I realized that I didn't know how. Yes, there were some cryptic instructions written on the rack -- something about pulling and pushing, but no matter what I did, nothing happened. The rack wouldn't budge. So I looked at the driver and asked for help. Again with the eye roll. She snarled something at me, presumably some sort of instructions, so I tried again. Still nothing. I gave her my best big-eyed pleading look, and she rolled her eyes yet again, snarled, "Oh my God," and got out of her seat. She tried to get the rack to work and finally said with satisfaction, "It doesn't work. You'll have to wait for the next bus."

Whew. That was a narrow escape. I might have had to ride on the same bus as that witch. Talk about bad karma!

The next bus came only a few minutes later, so I was pleased about that. Now, I know it's hard to believe that there could possibly be a section in the bus drivers' manual called, "How to be nasty to people who want to put their bikes on the bike rack" but after today, I am convinced that section exists. 

This bus driver was a bald 55-ish man, but he had almost the same reaction when he saw me and my bike. Fortunately, this bike rack had very clear directions and everything worked just fine, so I got the bike in place with no trouble. When I entered the bus, I asked the driver whether I'd done it properly and he snarled, "That's all you can do." 

Thanks for the reassurance, man.

I dropped my $3.20 in the box and watched with trepidation as the bus began to roll. The bike held on and seemed perfectly content in its spot up front, so I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed somewhat.

Along the way, I saw a few other intrepid cyclists pushing their bikes, so I felt a bit lazy, but told myself that they probably had a shorter ride than I did.

At 127 Street and Stony Plain Road, I disembarked and proceeded to ride/walk the rest of the way to work. There were quite a few shoveled sidewalks and a couple of streets with packed snow, so I would guess that about half the way was rideable. The rest of the time, I pushed the bike along, giving myself a good upper-body workout.

I got to work at about 8:50 and managed to be in front of the class ready to start by 9:00. Although it had not been a particularly easy or pleasant commute, I did feel good that at least I had spent some of that time being active instead of just sitting behind the wheel.

AFTER WORK:
During the day the temperature had fallen -- it was minus 10 with wind chill of -17 C. So I bundled up and set out, knowing that at least part of the time I'd be pushing the bike instead of riding. And yes, that is what happened for more than half the time. Needless to say, I was glad I'd chosen to park closer to work today.

Most of my walk/ride/walk/ride was not too bad. Until I came to the bridge across MacKinnon Ravine. The sidewalk here had not been cleared at all, which meant calf-deep snow, partially packed down by pedestrians, but not packed enough to form a firm path. I dragged my bike along, struggling to find a good place to put my feet and a good place for the bike wheels. I actually considered picking the bike up and carrying it, but maybe that would have been even harder. 

After I finally made it across, feeling disheartened and worn out, I was getting ready to climb back on my bike and ride the remaining kilometer or so to my van when I noticed that a guy in a stopped car was trying to get my attention. I looked his way and he asked me how much farther I had to go. 

"I normally ride my bike, too," he said, adding that today he had decided not to. (He very kindly didn't say that he was smarter than I am!) 

I assured him that I didn't have much farther and that I was OK from here on, and we went our separate ways, but it was amazing how much better I felt after that bit of thoughtfulness.

I rode on the mostly cleared sidewalks until I came to a good stretch of road, and before I knew it, I was at the car and then on my way back to Spruce Grove and a hot cup of tea!

Winter has arrived!

Last night right before I hit the sack, I saw that there was a snowfall warning -- for Spruce Grove and other places, but not for the City of Edmonton. 

Thinking that the weather warning would make good real-life reading practice for my students, I projected it onto the wall first thing this morning and we read the words of the warning and looked at the map. Sure enough, at 9:15 a.m., the lines on the map extended across the whole northern/central section of Alberta, but carefully excluded Edmonton. We all agreed that this was kind of strange, but of course we were not going to complain if the heavy snowfall missed the city!

However, when I refreshed the map at break time (10:30) things had changed. The city was now smack-dab in the middle of the snowfall warning area! And sure enough, by about 1:30, the snow had started to fall. By the time I left work at 3:15, it was just a nice layer -- maybe 3-4 cm -- and still easy to ride through. And this roundabout that I ride through along the way looked so pretty that I had to stop and snap a pic.

First ride of winter - November 2015

It's been a while. I have written about my travels in Europe -- and my cycling adventures there -- on my other blog, but for some reason I haven't written about my local riding.

Since I wanted this to be a record of not only my cycling routine, but also of weather and other conditions, when we had our first snowfall last week, I decided it's time to start again.

This begins my fifth winter of year-round bicycle commuting. I wish I could remember exactly when I started, but I do know it was during the 2011-2012 exceptionally mild winter.

Thursday, November 19, was our first real snow this fall. We got about 2-3 cm, but it was enough to make driving a little crazy, so I was happy to park my car at the west end and cycle the rest of the way.
As can be seen from the tracks on this Stony Plain Road bridge, quite a lot of other people had the same idea.What a thrill to see the tracks of 4 or 5 other cyclists, plus many pedestrians.

I decided to take the bike lane on 121 Street. Again, there were lots of bike tracks. There was also a truck parked in the bike lane. Thank you, City of Edmonton. Since there are parking spots across the street, I kindly pointed them out to the guy driving the truck. Unfortunately, I am not convinced he understood. Maybe he couldn't hear me very well over the sound of the motorized blower his co-worker was using.

Even with minor inconveniences like this,cycling is definitely the way to go when it comes to commuting. I arrived at work cold but refreshed and happy. It always feels so good to know that I am not letting winter get me down.

A few days ago I heard a researcher from Vermont speaking on the radio. Her research is related to SAD - seasonal affective disorder -- and she actually mentioned winter cycling as an effective way of combating this condition. It has been true for me. I can`t believe how my attitude towards winter has changed since I started my year-round bicycle commuting. I can't say I exactly look forward to the cold and snow, but at least I know I can enjoy it more than I would if I had to drive all the way to work every day.

Seen from Copenhagen

the Copenhagen GoBike -- with GPS and battery power -- no thanks!

This 3-speed rental bike was more my cup of tea!

The King and I, Copenhagen

In Copenhagen I stayed at a budget hotel called Wakeup Copenhagen. It was somewhat spartan, but clean and comfortable, and they had bikes to rent. What more could I ask?

For 115 Danish krone ($22) I could -- and did -- rent a bike for the entire day. I did this two days in a row and spent most of the time from 9:00 to 5:00 riding around and exploring the city.

The bike lanes of Copenhagen are amazing, not least because of their simplicity. Most of them are nothing more than a raised section of pavement running between the traffic lanes and the pedestrian sidewalks. Every major road I encountered had this type of bike lane. The smaller roads had either painted lanes or simply "share the road" type markings. 

just me and the Little Mermaid (and a few tourists!)

I was surprised to see how many cyclists wear helmets, as I had been led to believe that virtually no one did. I was also surprised to see how little concession was made to the cold wind and the rain. I wore jeans and a sweater, a warm jacket and scarf, and wool gloves, but other people were riding with bare hands, or with only thin nylons covering their legs.

 

St. Paul's Church

The Marble Church

Seen from Stockholm

on the way to Gamla Stan, Stockholm

I spent my one-week break between sessions far from home -- in Stockholm and Copenhagen, to be precise. I started out in Stockholm and stayed there for three days, then took the train to Copenhagen, where I spent the last three days. 

[The above photo was sort of forced on me. A young Polish girl stopped me and asked me to take her photo with this weird dog-like creature, and then insisted on returning the favour.]

A friend of mine, on hearing my plans, objected, saying, "But isn't it winter over there, too?" And yes, technically it was. But as the flowers and green grass will attest, in practical terms it was already spring. Temperatures were consistently above zero, although there were times when the wind and rain meant it felt pretty cold. But overall, it was a wonderful break, especially when I saw that it was -25 back home!

Linnaeus Statue in Humlegården Park, Stockholm

I rented a bike in both cities. In Stockholm I had some trouble finding a place to rent one. There were a couple of bike shops not far from my hotel, but both of them said they didn't rent bikes. The one guy told me that in summer I would be able to rent a bike "on the street" but that didn't help me much in March. 

Walking to Gamla Stan

After some searching on Google, however, I found Gamla Stans Cykel, in Gamla Stan, the Old Town. I highly recommend this place! 

Gamla Stans Cykel

The staff were friendly and the price was right: in a city where prices are generally quite high, for a measly 100 kroner (~$15) I rented a 3-speed bike complete with lock, basket --and coaster brakes. I hadn't ridden this sort of bike since I was about 10 or 11, but after some tentative experimentation, it all came back, and soon I was sailing around the island of Södermalm. 

Cycling in Södermalm

This area of Stockholm is supposed to be the coolest neighbourhood in Europe, but I didn't really see much of it, just circled the perimeter, as it were. There is a multi-use path that follows the shore, so I rode on that. Along the way I took a couple of wrong turns so I did unnecessarily ride up a few hills, see a few of the interior streets and stand on a lift bridge; and I even met a few of the locals, who gave me helpful directions, but further exploration will have to wait till next time I am over there.

Gamla Stan square

One of the big attractions in the Gamla Stan (Old Town) area of Stockholm is the Nobel Museum. I liked the exhibit about this man, Amartya Sen, who conducted his prize-deserving research by cycling from village to village in West Bengal.  

bike lane along a canal, Stockholm

Bicycle parking at the Stockholm Court House

This is my kind of church-goer!

nothing more changeable than the weather

There's nothing more changeable than the weather. 

So true these last few weeks.

Monday started out cold -- really cold. Although I dressed for the stated -17 with wind chill of -23, I arrived at work with numb fingers and toes. By the afternoon it had warmed up to -5 and I was quite comfy on the ride back to the car. 

The rest of the week was much warmer, but that brings other problems, namely unpleasant riding conditions on the icy, snowy multi-use trails. On Thursday the trail was so bad after work that I took the steep uphill trail out of the ravine to Churchill Crescent in Glenora and rode on 102 Avenue and Stony Plain Road to the bridge leading to Crestwood. From there I tried to ride on the 100 Avenue multi-use trail, but that was so bad that after a few blocks I opted for the road. The roads have a lot of gravel and numerous large puddles, but it's better than ploughing through thick slush.

No matter what the riding conditions, however, I am always happy to be on my bike instead of in a car or on the bus.

On Wednesday as I was heading into MacKinnon Ravine, I spotted a guy standing beside his little SUV fastening a bike helmet. I was a bit slow on the uptake, but as I started downhill I realized that he must be doing the same thing as me -- parking and riding. I promised myself that the next time I saw him I would stop for a chat.

 Well, the next morning I saw his SUV parked in the same place, but he was apparently already on his way. And then as I was riding up the hill to Ezio Faraone Park, I saw a guy ahead of me walking his bike. I passed him and as I did so I thought the helmet looked familiar: I was pretty sure he was the Park-and-Ride guy. So when I reached the top, I waited for him and asked. 

Sure enough. He lives in Devon and has been parking-and-riding for the last 25 years! 

That made my day.

On Friday I had to go to HQ at 118 Avenue and 82 Street. I parked in Crestwood and rode the rest of the way. I think I can honestly say that the MacKinnon Ravine trail was the worst it's been in my four years of riding. Not only is there thick ice, but the ice is deeply rutted and pitted with tire and foot marks. I may be a coward, but I simply could not bring myself to try to ride and ended up walking my bike for a couple hundred meters. The River Valley section was also quite icy, but manageable, and some spots were even quite good. 

Then I came to Rossdale. The trail there was sheer ice. I rode for a awhile in fear and trepidation, but when I wiped out, I decided I'd rather risk my life on the downtown streets than down in the valley. Spotting a set of stairs, I crossed the road. I wasn't sure exactly where I'd be when I reached the top, but I told myself that anything had to be an improvement on the icy trails below.

It was not an easy climb to the top. There was a short flight of stairs, followed by a landing. Then a long flight of stairs, and another landing. 

When I reached this landing, I groaned inwardly, but the young woman who reached the top shortly afterward groaned audibly. I laughed and told her that I knew the feeling. 

The next flight of stairs was even longer than the one we had just finished and it looked incredibly steep. But I put my shoulder to the wheel, so to speak, and made it to the top without having a heart attack or even getting too out of breath.

From there I rode in the street to the LRT trail, which goes almost all the way to my destination.

For the ride back to the car, I didn't bother with the River Valley, but just rode on 103/104 Avenue and Stony Plain Road. It was not too bad; the roads are quite clear and traffic wasn't very heavy, so I made pretty good time. 

winter winding down?

Now that it's the middle of February, I think we can safely that winter is winding down.

It doesn't always seem that way; during the last two weeks we have had two snowfalls of more than 10 cm each. One was on Thursday the 5th, and there was ample warning, so I parked in Glenora and walked to work, down through the ravine and up Victoria Park hill. It was a beautiful start to the day -- not too cold and so pretty. 

It snowed all day, making the trek home an adventure. About halfway down Victoria Park hill, all of a sudden there were no more footprints. Mine were the first. And the snow was deep. I trudged along, feeling like I was never going to make it to the bottom. Down in the ravine, the situation was the same -- no other prints. Actually, there was one tire track -- yes, someone had ridden a bike down there, and not a fat bike either. Visibility was limited and I almost missed the point where I had to turn right and head uphill back to my car. This was one time I was very thankful not to have to go to work on Friday!

The next big snowfall was last Friday night. I looked at the weather forecast before going to bed and saw that we were due for 2-4 cm of snow. Woke up the next day to see about 10-15 cm. It was nice that it happened on the weekend; I didn't have to drive anywhere and didn't even ride my bike. I did go out walking, ploughing my way through the deep snow and sloshing through puddles and slush. Today is colder and again it's snowing, but I still maintain that winter is on its way out.

using music to teach ESL

This is hardly original with me, but I have a feeling every ESL instructor who tries it feels the same way I do -- amazed and thrilled at what great teaching tools popular songs can be.

In recent months I have used songs of various types for teaching pronunciation, parts of speech, vocabulary, grammar, and more.

Last week it was I've Never Been to Spain, by Three Dog Night, for practice with the present perfect tense and compound sentences.


On Thursday we listened to the song and discussed the use of the present perfect. Then  on Monday, we listened again and I gave a writing assignment: Write your own "I've never been to..., but I ..." sentence, and go on to explain a little bit about it. 

My example was, "I've never been to Denmark, but I like to play with Lego." I reminisced about my childhood Lego collection, the special chest of drawers my dad built to store it, and the endless hours I spent building castles and houses, people and cars. I  told about how sorry I was that my parents sold the Lego when they sold their house. My own sons and their love for Lego came next, followed by a lesson learned: don't sell the Lego!

Some of my students are very well educated and literate, so they wrote at length. Others wrote 3 or 4 sentences. But all the compositions were superb, each one unique. One student has never been to India, but she loves Indian food; while one of the men has never been to Italy but loves Italian food and told the story of taking his girlfriend -- now his wife -- to an Italian restaurant on their first date.


All in all, it was a highly successful set of lessons based on a song from my youth. 

Afterwards, however, I realized that I had missed a great opportunity: 

I've never been to Finland, but I ride my bike in winter!

back to work

I've had a bit of a rocky start this session. The first Monday, January 5th, I drove because I had 3 large bags of books and other stuff I wanted to bring with me. The load included some books I had  borrowed almost 3 years ago, so I thought it was time to bring them back! That day also happened to be really cold -- maybe -35C with windchill -0- but even so I was frustrated at being behind the wheel. It took me almost 90 minutes to drive the 30 km from home to downtown, a combined result of snowy, icy roads and the detour for the bridge construction on 102 Avenue. 

The next day I was happy to be back on the bike. However, it had snowed a fair bit and I wasn't sure about trail conditions, so I decided to try something new. I parked in Glenora and rode from there. I took Stony Plain Road and the bike trail that runs behind Original Joes, ending up on the contra-flow bike lane and 100 Avenue. It wasn't bad, but when I came back to the car after work, I noticed that there is an entrance to the trail system just up the street from the place I had parked. Just as I took that in I was hailed by a guy who came out of one of the houses; he asked whether I was lost. I replied in the negative, telling him that I had parked there and ridden downtown. "You're good!" was his response, and he then went on to tell me about the entrance to the trail system, adding that the city is good about clearing the trails. 

So, on Wednesday I parked there again and rode down down down into the River Valley. It was pretty scary -- riding in the dark on a new, very steep trail, with a deep ravine on my right and no guardrail (and on top of it all, I'd forgotten my phone), but I made it to the bottom safe and sound, and from there it was but a short ride to the Faraone Park trail crosswalk. In all it was a much shorter ride than my usual 8.6 km, but it was fun to try something new, and it's good to know that on really cold days I have that option. On Thursday I took my usual route and arrived at work cold but happy.

Well, then the next Monday, January 12th, I arrived at my parking spot only to discover that I'd forgotten my helmet. I briefly considered bare-headed riding, but it was -24 C and I was afraid I'd arrive at work with no ears. I didn't have a hat in the car. I was rather annoyed with myself, but decided to simply be thankful that I am allowed to park for free as long as it is only occasionally, and I drove. These two days of driving have made me more thankful than ever that I can ride my bike, and I stuck a spare helmet (along with a hat, extra gloves, and a scarf) in the car so that I will never find myself in that situation again!

The weather warmed up dramatically for the rest of the week, so I enjoyed 3 days of absolutely delightful bicycle commutes through MacKinnon Ravine and the River Valley. The trails are ploughed and smooth, and I even had a couple of dog-walkers whom I pass every morning tell me that they are impressed with me! There is also a friendly guy who walks along the Railtown Trail and gives me a big smile whenever he sees me. Little things like this contribute to a great start to the workday! 

This graphic, spotted on Twitter, says it all!

this grandma rides her bike in the winter

I recently read this article about winter cycling.

The whole article is interesting, but what really caught my attention was this quote from Tom Babin's book Frostbike, in regard to Oulu, Finland:

But what really opened my eyes was being at the grocery store and seeing a grandma come out with a bag of groceries and pop it into her basket and ride off into the snow. You never see that in Canada.

Well, I hate to contradict the expert, but... on a visit to the small prairie city of Spruce Grove on a Friday or Saturday during the winter you just might see a grandma come out of the grocery store with a bag of groceries -- or two or three -- and pop them into her panniers and ride off into the snow. That grandma would be me, doing my part to normalize the idea of winter biking.

the full-to-bursting panniers

True, at first glance you might not realize that I am a grandma. I don 't have grey permed hair and a bulging midsection. I don't wear aprons. I don't even have very many wrinkles. But I do have two little grand-daughters, so that makes me a granny. 

And I ride my bike in winter. 

I ride about 17 km each day for work, and on my days off I use my bike to do all my errands around town -- grocery shopping, library, you name it. 

If it's warm, like today, I add on some extra riding on the trails in the woods.

If it's minus 30-ish, like it was earlier this month, I bundle up and sometimes make my ride a little shorter. 
But I ride almost every day. 

Why do I ride in the winter? I don't do it with the goal of normalizing the idea of winter biking; I don't do it to save money on transportation; I don't do it to make other people feel lazy -- I do it because it's fun and I love it! 
It makes me feel strong and tough and fit and happy. What other reason could I need?
 

I am Canadian and I am a grandma who rides her bike in winter!