A 50 degree morning meant no winter gear, and also got me curious as to the shape that the lakefront path is in. Thinking that it was an easy way to avoid the greater number of bikers out due to the great weather, I indulged my curiosity and headed straight to the path this morning.


Oops. That might not have been the brightest idea. Beyond having to navigate police saw horses, there were huge chunks of asphalt gone with big drops to concrete underneath. Those lines on the path to the right in the pic aren't patches, those are huge craters. Past that, the beach had attempted to swallow the path where it was still whole, making the entire area flush with sand. So conditions were shit, but there wasn't that much ice out even though the path didn't seem to be in one piece. There was even a single-file area by the oak street beach s-curve that you could bike on. It was right under LSD and I swear I was getting road splash dripped on me, but it was passable.

Even in those shit conditions it was worth riding. Thankfully the Chicago underpass stairs were relatively snow-free. As I was moving the police barrier blocking those stairs, it did strike me that there were more bikers on the path than I expected. And they were probably out there all winter while I was taking a shorter route through the neighborhood. And by horning in on their space in the nicer weather, I had become just the sort of extra biker I can't stand while I take side streets and extra people start to show up.

That made me laugh. Which is good, b/c once I got to the office the day turned to complete shit. But that's what I signed up for, and everyone has a right to freak out every once in a while.

Current beer-scale: 9.4