four season cycling

Our yo-yo winter continues. Warm, cold, thaw, freeze, over and over. This far North we’re used to everything freezing up in November and not thawing until April. This year has been weird. That’s the word I’ve heard used a lot this winter. We’ve had at least one major thaw each month so far this year. And then it snows again. Like it did this past Friday. And then two days later it’s mostly gone.

I got out on a bike both days this weekend. Yesterday it was very sunny, and just warm enough to melt about half our snowfall from Friday.

Today it was cloudier, but the melting continued.  On today’s ride I started thinking about the name of this blog: Four Season Cycling. I have to comment that it’s definitely not four seasons that last an equal amount of time on the calendar. If anything, Winter lasts the longest. Up to six months. That is if you count the winter months from when the leaves are on the ground in late October and up until green-up happens in the Spring. This typically happens around Memorial Day. It’s not until the late May holiday weekend that leaves are finally out and the lilacs and fruit trees are starting to blossom.

My thought was to add a couple of seasons during the shoulder months to “shorten” the winter season. I’m thinking late October and November could be a new season. April and the first couple of weeks of May could be another new season. We will need new names for these shoulder seasons. Or maybe just combine the names of the adjoining seasons like Winspring and Fallter?

Well, regardless of what we call the seasons and how many there happen to be, the hardiest Minnesotans enjoy riding through them all.

Cycle on!