biking in december

For reasons that involve a car accident and a longtime desire to live car-less, we are currently without a vehicle.    So when we needed a few things that could only be gotten north of town, we had two options: bus or bike.  Yesterday we made an adventure of it and biked up to the mall area for some shopping.

We took the bike path through the marsh on the way up, and it was traffic-free, but very hilly.  It took us forty minutes from home to Target, where we had to buy a new bike lock because both of us had forgotten ours at home.

After a few hours, a few stores, and a lost mitten, we rode back south.  This time we took the sidewalk along the highway.  It was noisy and littered with obstacles, but all the hills were gradual.  It took us fifteen minutes to get home.

All told, we biked 13.3 miles in a little over an hour in 30 degree weather midst the gift-returning/after-Christmas-sale mall traffic, and we only forgot one item.  It was a pretty successful day in my book.