Saturday, March 7, 2009

Lackawanna Lake solid enough to bike on

My Thursday bike ride to Clarks Summit included riding right across the lake at Lackawanna State Park.

After the first few feet, before the water got deep, I dismounted and walked a little ways just to get a better feel for whether it was crackling (because I was entering in a slightly different place than the ice fishermen were, plus I suspect that a 27 x 1 1/4" or 1 3/8" tire concentrates the weight a little bit more than shoes do). But it wasn't crackling an iota, nor even hardly sagging (and years ago, logging with my tractor on the Frost Farm's beaver lake, I got away with making a whole bunch of trips with it sagging _a_ _lot_ - the trick is to just keep moving - but I was nuts back then), so I re-mounted and zipped right across, and up the boat ramp on the other side.

No knobbies; just slicks on my road bike. But traction was no problem, thanks to evenly-spaced patches of a thin crust of snow on the ice.

These sporadic weekday rides that I take to Clarks Summit are somewhat related to the paper route in that they're usually timed to include a stop at the distribution center when it's still open, to pick up a check.

Hmmm, I better hurry up and take an extra ride or two just to Lackawanna State Park; it got to be like spring yesterday so I bet I've only got a few more days to see if I can try riding the _length_ of that lake instead of just across it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

If you like riding on ice like that, you should check out Lucas Brunelle on the Charles River! ;)