Trike-ing Through the Snow....

TTT (Today's Trike Tracking)

Well, there wasn't a WHOLE lot of snow we pedaled through, but even a little is not too enjoyable, especially frozen into a hard crust.
I was waffling this afternoon about whether to sneak in at least a short bike ride when Jacque, out  of the blue, said: "It's 3:30 and beautiful out.  Why don't we ride the trike to the Post Office and pick up the mail?"  Which sounded like a great idea to me, even though I knew the hour was late.  Ignoring my recent late afternoon experiences, we saddled up the trike for the ride.  By the time we actually got rolling it was after 4 PM, and it gets pretty dark by 5 PM nowadays, and nastily colder starting around 3 PM.
Man, did it ever seem COLD this afternoon.  And SLOW.  The cold seemed to sap our strength and it was a struggle to keep moving.  We made several rest stops along the short but difficult climb to the P.O. and still struggled.  About halfway up the road Jacque noticed something rubbing and making noise in the back as we downshifted to Granny Gear, the lowest of the low gears of our theoretical 27 combinations.  We stopped and found the derailleur was rubbing the tire when in the largest rear  gear, meaning the derailleur was extended the most, normally barely clearing the ground in this gear.  Now it was rubbing the rear tire and leaving a mark on the sidewall.  The tire looked a bit low in pressure, making it sag outward on the bottom,  so I dug the CO2 cartridge inflator gun out of the tool pouch on the pannier and used the last few PSI, inflating the tire noticably.  It still seemed to touch the derailleur but not as badly or noisily.  By the time I got everything packed back up in the pannier, it was almost dark.  Did I mention it was cold?  Neither of us seemed to have much energy and we wondered aloud at our sanity at riding this late in a cold day.  I felt like I was getting a bit low on blood glucose but didn't want to stop and check it until we got to the Post Office, where I could check all that out whilst Jacque went inside to retrieve the mail.  During our tire-inflation stop we had noticed the girls,  Tink and Jazzy, were shivering.  Jacque took Tink out of her harness in the rear basket and tucked her inside the front of her jacket, warming them both a bit more.  No complaint from either of them (Jacque OR Tink).  I took my layers off.  Jazzy was in her belly pack on the outside of my layers so I re-layered everything with HER on the INSIDE, where she could be zipped up underneath the windbreaker.  Both doggies seemed to appreciate the gestures since they stopped shivering.... almost completely.
It was a strain and a struggle but we finally made it to the P.O., and we agreed unanimously that we were definitely NOT going to go on up to the Shell Station for a snack.   We were cold and tired and interested solely in the mostly downhill run back toward the vehicle that burned gasoline and had a working HEATER inside.  When Jacque came back outside, with the usual couple of admiring passers-by clucking at the doggies, I showed her my blood glucose reading, not sure I was seeing straight:  TWENTY (20), way below the level of consciousness for most diabetics.  No wonder I had been so low on energy coming up the hill.  I quickly ate my stash of chocolate chip cookie emergency snacks (3 cookies), feeling bad because we were just sitting in the PO parking lot getting colder and no closer to home.... and the sun was fast going away completely.  We finally got underway again and - with only 2 mild hills obstructing a good downhill ride - were soon back at the Ford SUV and loading up.  The warmth of the inside of that Ford was truly wonderful this evening.  We were fairly chilled and it took over an hour of basking in the wood heat at home to get our insides warmed up again.
We agree we will definitely ride in the cold again.... but never again after 3 PM and more hopefully no later than 1 or 2 PM, at least in the colder months.

Ride Started: 4:08 PM    Ride Ended:  5:27 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.3       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  35 F      Highest Temp:  57 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.56
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  2.9 MPH                               5.3 MPH                     23.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 14 mins                       40 minutes                 33 minutes