Winter in Minnesota can be delightful, gorgeous, fragile, challenging, and sometimes far too gray. In January of 2018, Melissa Wenzel issued herself a challenge to a winter-weather version of April’s “30 Days of Biking.” Fellow winter bicyclists in Minnesota and around the world joined Melissa in her pledge to bike every day in January. In 2019, Fred Kreider decided to extend their own January biking goal and biked every day for a full year.

 

For 31 Days of Winter Biking 2020,  I want to share with you the joy, the beauty, and the camaraderie of winter bicycling, featuring the voices of some of the winter bicyclists themselves:

 

 

Ride a bicycle among the icicles! Happy 2020! Happy #31daysofwinterbiking! https://t.co/PyCbxDMQVH #bikelife #winterbiking

— Melissa Wenzel (@melissawenzelMN) January 1, 2020

Trails in StP were great today. Vento, Como, & Wheelock all clear (tho still icy).

Thanks to @SaintPaulParks and @stpaulpublicw for a great job. #winterbiking pic.twitter.com/uMX5RYx0kx

— Dan Marshall (@DanMarStP) January 1, 2020

https://twitter.com/mikeapolismn/status/1216093700855685120?s=20

https://twitter.com/eBikeSTP/status/1217936805405908992?s=20

The only reason I had to leave the house today was to shovel the sidewalk. But because it's day 18 of #31DaysofWinterBiking, I decided to try using my bike to help! It went about as well as you'd expect. pic.twitter.com/nV14rCDNGl

— @ianrbuck@mspsocial.net (@ianrbuck) January 18, 2020

https://twitter.com/deveric/status/1221222808992264192?s=20

#31daysofwinterbiking day 31: Finished the month with a long morning ride on the Greenway & East River Rd. Looks like it’ll be 447 miles in January after this evening’s ride home. Thank you everyone for all the inspiration! pic.twitter.com/4KsziLD70Q

— Dan Marshall (@DanMarStP) January 31, 2020

31/31 Spending the last month watching you #WinterBikingWarriors has pushed me to keep going. Your presence out here every day is normalizing the necessary & absolutely inspirational. HUGE thank you to @melissawenzelMN for starting #31DaysOfWinterBiking pic.twitter.com/trOzbizFFD

— comotrekker (@comotrekker) January 31, 2020

 

Bicycling in winter is truly joyful, despite the challenges. I personally love snow and cold, but not all of us do – as Melissa wrote last year:

Lastly, while I still don’t love winter, I am getting better about embracing the season and feeling more comfortable biking year-round.

I hope you’ve all had a happy January, and found some delight in the winter weather. Please feel free to share your own stories of winter bicycling in the comments, or read more of January’s tweets at #31daysofwinterbicycling.

Don’t forget! This Friday is Winter Bike to Work Day, which is another great opportunity to try a snowy ride.