Riding Into the Bay (Comments: 0)

It’s been a very bizarre winter this year (get used to them), but last night we got hit with big snowflakes that actually stuck to the pavement for a change. I rode out to the Rochester suburb of Webster to visit my parents and get some exercise in the process.

Here’s half the hill I brave with every visit to and from Webster:

This is where Empire Boulevard drops down to Irondequoit bay. It’s a long hill, but it actually has a shoulder — which isn’t always the case on four-lane roads in Great Rochester. And when things get hairy, there’s a generous sidewalk alongside so one can walk their bike. With last night’s slippery shoulders, low visibility, and ice cold winds, things did indeed get hairy. By this blog’s standards, I was emasculated, though I brave this hill enough in less inclement weather to credit it for my calf muscles. I have great respect for Gary Young, who I believe frequents this hill on his journeys into Rochester.

The bay itself is a great place to stop for a sip from the water bottle or to snap eerie photos like this one:

My dad asked me last night if I miss my car, and I can honestly say that I much prefer bikes in all types of weather (I should note that I haven’t ridden in a monsoon yet). Last week, I drove a motor vehicle for the first time in almost 6 months. I took a simple trip to the grocery store and back home and I was anxious the whole time. I did not want to be in control of a mass I couldn’t carry, especially around pedestrians, in the dark, and on slippery pavement. There is just no sense in it at all.

When people see me show up at their house coated in a thick layer of snow, beard filled with icicles, face beet red, their natural reaction is to feel sorry for me. I try to level with them — “Do you know how much fun I just had?” Winter commuting is challenging, invigorating, almost soul-nurturing. It’s better than meditation, or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s a special kind of meditation. Why did it take me so long to figure this out?

I often draw parallels between my “conversion” to bike commuting and my switch to a vegetarian diet a few years back. In both cases I had been following the conventional wisdom all my life, but slowly began to realize how my day to day actions were separate from my values. And I think most people recognize the goodness and benefits in vegetarianism, and the goodness and benefits in bike riding, but it takes a bit of introspection and self-confrontation to bring one’s life in line with one’s beliefs. I think it’s no fluke that almost everyone on Team RocBike is a vegetarian (everyone, that is, except Jason!), and also that many of the Rochester-area vegans I know are cyclists.

Now it’s time to get back out there and ride. Tonight’s looking to be cold but less precipitous, which is good news for the Joey Machine’s last Rochester Bike Cruise. I’ll try to get some footage of the event and post it in a timely fashion.

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