Four Inches

You know how as a little kid it was so cool to be the first one to make tracks in new snow. These are my tire tracks. The marks alongside the tire tracks are where my pedals hit the snow. Yeah, it was deep.
Old Blue is an amazing bike. He goes through, over, across, and under anything, and seems to like being called on for the tough assignments. The others bow in acknowledgement of his status.

Slogged for about 7 or 8 miles of un-plowed trails. This was a beautiful stretch, but very, very tough riding, and it was into a pretty good head wind. Some joggers coming from the other direction, yelled at me, Man! way-to-go, keep it up. I was generating a significant amount of heat. Sweat was coming off my head, my base layer was soaked and my intermediate layer was starting to take on moisture as well.

I turned around at Baker Road, after taking a breather, and opening up my jacket and jersey to literally let off some steam. The tail wind only made the return effort slightly easier.

As I came out of the wooded part of the trail, I saw a man standing at the side of the trail. As I got closer I could see that he was holding a white cane with a red tipped end. He was no more than 5'3 and had on a light blue ski mask that completely covered his face. He was dressed for the temperature, with a hat that seemed a little too big and ear flaps that came all the way to his jaw bone. A warm jacket and leather mittens, that seemed again a little too large. The mittens wrapped tightly around his cane. His sun glasses were over sized and covered everything from his hat to the tip of his nose. I could see his upper lip through what would have been the mouth hole in his ski mask.

I asked him, if he was OK. He mumbled. I asked if he knew where he was. He said, "they should have plowed the trail, I wish there was someone I could call". I said, "my name's Tom, I'm riding my bike, and I wish the trail was plowed too".

He said he was heading west and just wanted to get out for a walk, "but the trail isn't plowed". I told him I could see LA Fitness, that it was about a half mile along the path.

"Do you live close by?"

"Yes, just on the other side of the bridge."

"Would you like me to walk over there with you?"

"Yes."

He turned around and pointed his face up at the sun.

"I'm facing east now, I can feel the sun on my right side."

He didn't really walk, but moved along with more of a shuffle, his feet never leaving the ground. His cane was perpendicular to the ground and he would jab at the trail with it. He weaved along the trail sort of criss-crossing, but definitely heading east.

"Do you live in those town homes on the other side of the bridge?"

"Yes, the trail is cleared there."

It took us about 15 minutes to shuffle the 2500 feet to the other side of the bridge, and just as he had said, a path had been cleared that lead from the townhouses to the trail.

I said, "it's a perfect day for a walk".

He perked up and said, "yes, it is".

"We're about half way over the bridge now. "

"Yes, I can hear the cars below us."
"You know some people don't like getting out on days like this". "I need to get out and breathe the fresh air."

He perked up again and said, "I know, I love to be out."

We got to the cleared path and he moved his cane to a 45 degree angle to the path.

"You know where you are?" "I sure enjoyed meeting you and getting to walk with you for a little bit".

He waved and wished me a nice day.

15 minutes with him was total pleasure.

My slogg was so much easier from that point on.

30/10