FBAD: Life on the Blue Ridge

[bobw]

Happy New Year my friend!, excellent photos and great to "hear" from you.

Getting plenty of miles in, but staying low as on a recent run up "the 16s" into VA my friend following me made a slow speed, low side in the sand covered, wet roads. Figured I would throw in the towel and let Mother Nature and her Black Ice minions rule the shadows and hoarfrost for a couple more months without further Virgin Tupperware sacrifices being offered,

I owe JB2 a letter and also hope to catch up with you guys during the season. stay safe and be well!

Cheers

[Fast Ferris]

Greetings, amigo. Hope your friend escaped without serious injury. The roads around here can surely be tricky in the winter. Lately we've had several bouts of truly insidious black ice, the just-looks-wet-but-slicker-than-snot kind, fortunately not while out riding, tho.

This is from our 50-year-winter several seasons ago. The Parkway was closed in these parts for over three months, but there's a dirt/gravel road we can use to get in and get out, and I hadn't ridden in so long I was willing to go to great lengths to do so.

The first shots are early in the season, not much snow, and it had warmed up enough to melt the "trail" I'd shoveled from the garage out to the street (which had been plowed):


The ground is a little "soupy" from having been frozen and then thawed, so I'm trying to crawl up the hill to the street without churning a rut up the yard.



Success!

[Fast Ferris]

This is much later in the winter, and the conditions were grim. But, I had a day off and I hate to waste 'em! Digging a trail out to the street took the better part of a day this time, chipping away at several storms' worth of rock-hard frozen snow, and it never warmed up above freezing, so although I was almost down to yard level, I was still dealing with trying to find purchase on top of a layer of compact snow and ice.

The solution was to crawl out to the street on two planks laid end to end. I'd inch up on top of one, Denise would grab the one I'd just cleared and drag it around to the front of the bike, I'd crawl up on it, she'd grab the one behind me and move it up front, and lather-rinse-repeat out to the street.


Warming up the RK, wondering what the heck we were doing.









Almost there.



Voila!

[tastroman]

Welcome back!!

I've been scoot commuting minus a couple icy days but have not taken a joy ride in 2 months. Won't be long now though.

[Fast Ferris]

Hola, amigo.

Yeah, prolly a coupla months since my last joy ride, too. In past winters I've managed to dig out here and there and log some miles, but it's always such an effort, and the salt shite they use on the roads in this part of the world is brutal on the moto (my wheels are permanently etched from the rides depicted in the photo sequences above and below), so this winter I've chosen just to bide my time. I don't do "hurry up and wait" very well, though...

Hope to ride with you again soon. :-)