Snow-free Winter Muni Ride

I took a few hours of vacation this afternoon to ride at Whiting and Webster Park. Most of the snow around here has melted and the temperature was just above freezing.
The trails at Whiting and Webster were generally clear, but some areas still had hard packed snow and ice. All of these areas were flat, so it wasn't too bad. One exception was the field area at Whiting. There must have been about four inches of hard packed snow riddled with footprints, and it went around the entire field. Getting through that was a workout.

There were also frozen boot-prints wherever mud had been. And much of the trails top inch or two has heaved upward from freezing. That creates a lot of bumps and ridges. It's kind of worrying to see. But I know the trails will recover in the spring.

It all made for a bumpier ride and more of a workout.
With that and the battle of breathing cold air, and getting hot and cold, I decided that one of my usual laps was enough.

I was very happy to make it up all my challenging hills. Hopefully I won't lose much endurance over the winter.

I rode 6 miles according to my cycle computer. 5.8 miles according to my GPS. And it looks like I went about 4 or 5 mph, a bit slower than usual.

Muni at Whiting and Webster Park - 2011-01-04