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Hi Bradley,
You have a few options from our part of town, I commute from Strathcona Park near 85th street. The best options are probably one of these two for you:Take the Sarcee pathway to the intersection of Bow Trail & Sarcee, then drop into Edworthy Park down the hill and join up the pathway there. Only the north side of the pathway is snow cleared, so the South side will be impassable for a somewhat regular bike from probably November to June depending on the year. The North side will be your way.
Second option is to follow Spruce Drive to the end of it, then take the left on 12 Ave SW parallel to Bow Trail for the length of Shaganappi golf course, you can then take the overpass above Bow Trail and go down the hill near the golf course at the end of 24 St. SW, then you’re on the Bow Trail pathway.
There are some other options but these two are the best. The hill at Edworthy can sometimes become a bit of a glacier, but the last winter was pretty good the times I did take it. That being said I usually opt for option 2 as it takes me closer to my destination.
I picked up a pair of the Schwalbe Winter Marathon Plus’s and was glad to have them on this morning, definitely made the difference. It wasn’t too hard to swap them around so they may come off again next week but at least this week they’ll get a good bedding in. Looks like ice in the morning and wet in the afternoons is going to be the story of the week. The bridge deck over Bow Trail near the golf course was pretty bad this morning, hope it gets melted off soon.
Great info, thanks all. The regular Schwalbe Marathons have done well for me so I’m going to get a pair of the Marathon Plus Winters and go up to a 35c just for confidence on some of the downhills I’ll have in the morning, took the new 12 Ave cycle track this morning from 15th St. and it shaved a few minutes off my typical commute, this should help me push through the winter this year.
So friends – as someone new and trying to keep going into the winter for the first time – when do I buy studs and when do I put them on? Looks like snow coming for Friday but assuming it’ll be a fall and melt kind of day and I can make due with current rubber (Not super grippy, but Schwalbe Marathon 700×32). Looking at getting a set of the Schwalbe Winter Marathons and only have a single wheelset for the cyclocross bike I am planning to use. Advice appreciated.
It looks like the 12 Ave cycle track extension westward made big progress seemingly overnight – I’m sure I would have noticed it yesterday. Anyone happen to know if it is open, and for how far? All the way past 14th st? I may try it out on the ride home.
Been a good year for commuting weather. Quarry trail is degrading I’ve noticed. I caught a rut last week and bit it fairly hard, this morning I noticed the weekend rain took its toll again, I think I will have to call it out of bounds for my bike with skinny-ish tires (32s). Not sure if it’s worth calling in to the city at this point in the year.
Yep, no reply on my 311 request from last week and then this morning it was closed up to Safeway between 7th and 8th. There was a detour sign eastbound that just points to the road, but not even a yield sign and no cars letting in a group of us that were waiting to merge in. I’m not really comfortable mixing with traffic, but if I’m forced to do it I’d rather do it on 10th Avenue so I think that’s my new route unfortunately.
I’m contemplating printing a batch of these…. had a close call this a.m. with one joining the pathway with absolutely zero looking first, but was already braking anticipating it.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/lEx7jRS.jpg[/img]
I haven’t ventured on the south pathway yet this year. Worth continuing to avoid with skinny road bike tires – assume you are talking south path? It might be worth it if they are taking care of the worst sections of pathway that got eaten up last year by early ice removal.
I think it’s difficult to enforce a carte blanche max limit for the whole city – we would never do it for roadways. For example I typically take the pathway between Sarcee and Strathcona Blvd. that runs along Bow Trail. It’s about a -4.5% downhill and green fields with good visibility all along. I think common sense dictates that I should slow if I’m passing a pedestrian however if I’m able to see well ahead, why should I now be concerned that Bylaw could be setting a speed trap here to fill coffers. So many things can be done to help pathway behaviour and safety without a focus on speed here – how about putting some bylaw un-uniformed officers out there on bikes targeting unsafe passing, lack of bell use, etc. – that’s something I’d be happy to support.
Nice weather so far this week, aside from the random wind storms. Anyone have an update on the south pathway between Edworthy and Crowchild? Wondering if it’s clear and dry yet for skinny tires.
This is really exciting news, will cut my own commute down significantly and probably will help me push my seasons more broadly knowing that they plow the tracks fairly well on 12th.
Quarry Road trail is in good shape, kudos to the improvement work they did on it year before last, definitely not as sloppy as it was a few years ago.
My first commute this year, the paved pathway downhill by the golf course was pretty dicey this morning, even on foot. Hopefully another few days of this weather and we’ll have bare pavement and Quarry will be back in action.
