The Golden Wrench

A blog about bicycle repair and maintenance by the mechanics at Freewheel Bike.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Midtown Skiway

If you don't live in the Midwest, you may have heard that Minnesota experienced a record-setting storm yesterday that resulted in well over a foot of snow.  Strong winds (gusting to 50mph) turned south Minneapolis into a snowy desert with drifting dunes of snow accumulating all over the place.  Buses were called back to the garage, plows were called back, and just about everything ground to a halt.  Today the streets are still a mess, with cars buried in snowbanks as far as the eye can see. 

Our fair Midtown Greenway commuter trail, normally plowed before the surface streets nearby, is a disaster for bikes.  Fortunately, us Minnesotans have a few other ways to get around in this weather.  Myself and one other coworker skied to work today.  Here what the Greenway looked like when I came in around noon:



Here's what the snowdrift on the Greenway in front of Midtown looked like yesterday afternoon and again as we were closing up, when the drift was about chest-deep: