Photos courtesy of Jeanette Kimball
I remember back in February 2011 reading about Bruce Krentz’s bet with Harold Smith, a former City of Thompson councillor and executive director for Manitoba Housing and Community Development’s northern housing operations, who challenged him to use active transportation commensurate with getting to his new job as health promotion co-ordinator with the Burntwood Regional Health Authority (now the Northern Regional Health Authority). “He said, ‘Really, you should walk the walk,'” Krentz said at the time. “I sort of made the commitment that I would bike all year.” Smith said he didn’t expect Krentz to use a bike as his method of transportation. “To be honest, when I threw down that challenge I was really thinking about him walking, not cycling,” said Smith, who noted in 2011 he wasn’t surprised that Krentz had stuck with the plan. “Bruce has a history of sticking with things, especially the crazier ones.”
That’s interesting, I thought. Sounds like Bruce. And Harold. Frankly, it didn’t hold any appeal to me personally, although I had been doing a good deal of fair weather riding from mid-April through early November since my arrival in Thompson in 2007.
Early November came last fall (call it winter here in Thompson, no matter what the calendar might say) and I thought about my three most likely routine options for transportation from my home on Juniper Drive to anywhere else in the city. I say routine because I am not a martyr and happily and gratefully borrow Jeanette’s car on occasion, particularly for bulky grocery items, or when I have a large number of places to get to in a fairly compressed time period, regardless of season. But it was routine everyday transportation I was contemplating back in early November. Walking was one option. Taking the bus was another.
The nearest Transit Route 2 bus stop to me, which even has a shelter, is a very short distance away on Maple Street, near Thompson Drive South. A city-owned public footpath beside my next-door neighbour connects the 200-block of Juniper Drive to the back of Southwood Shopping Plaza on Thompson Drive South, so it’s pretty quick and simple to get to it. Which I did do for a couple of winters. I still have fond memories of two Greyhound-contracted city bus drivers in particular. Darwin Graham made a point of trying to be as close to on time as possible because he realized at -35°C or -40°C two minutes makes a big difference when you are standing outside waiting for a bus, even with a shelter. Darwin also didn’t try and rush his route and whiz by early either for the same reason: You might miss the bus altogether and have to wait for the next one, usually in half an hour, which is even worse in cold weather than the bus being a couple of minutes late. I probably read the equivalent of several books, a few pages here, a chapter there, on my many morning bus trips with Darwin at the helm. The other bus driver I got to know was Conrad Hykawy. I didn’t get quite as much reading done on the days Conrad was driving because he loved trading local news items back-and-forth with me and had an opinion on pretty much everything. A good guy to know, as we’d say in the news business, because he knew where the bodies were buried, in a manner of speaking.
Still, I realized this year, taking the bus, at least as a regular thing, really didn’t hold very much appeal. No matter how fond my recollections of Darwin and Conrad, the predominant thought at the front of my mind was just how cold it can be waiting for the bus in Thompson in the winter even if the drivers make heroic efforts to be on time. And walking seemed kind of slow by comparison after months of bicycling … which brought me back to option three … carry on biking around town.
Aside from reading about Bruce’s winter bicycling experiences, I also knew a bit about the topic from Jeanette’s exploits in the area. She took up winter bicycling maybe a year after Bruce. It’s because of Jeanette’s methodical practicality and lessons learned through experience I wear a reflective vest for night riding (which I do comparatively little of in the winter … usually about twice a month, just down the street to St. Lawrence parish hall to join my Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 brothers for a a few hours for a business meeting or to help work a bingo … as I am now fraternally known by my brothers as the “knight on a bike.” My lights, ski goggles (de rigueur attire, I’ve found below about -15°C) and snazzy red bicycle helmet also came to me courtesy of Jeanette.
Bruce is a big believer in using studded winter bicycle tires. Jeanette also rides with Schwalbe Marathon winter studded 26-inch tires. I ride (at least so far) with my regular non-studded mountain bike tires. I’ve tried Jeanette’s bike and studded tires do grip better on ice, which there is no shortage of. Studs or no studs, I haven’t found a bike tire that gives very good traction in loose snow. A pleasant irony, however, is the colder the day the better the traction seems to be on most Thompson streets. Traction is much trickier usually in -5°C conditions in “brown sugar” like snow and ice road conditions than the grip your tires get at -35°C. Two items that I previously owned but which never got much use prior to this winter is a pair of long johns and a black balaclava (which I try and remember to take off before going into use my ATM at the Bank of Nova Scotia).
Making life easier for cyclists in Thompson – year-round, not just in winter – are the paved two-lane multi-use boulevard pathways for pedestrians and cyclists completed last fall. In my case, I can take a multi-use boulevard pathway all along Thompson Drive now from Northern Spirit Manor personal care home all the way down to R.D. Parker Collegiate. Truth be told, there are days when it is still easier and safer this winter to ride along Thompson Drive, but the City of Thompson’s public works department is doing a pretty decent job trying to keep the multi-use boulevard pathway I am using functional. I was on it most recently Jan. 7 as public works had a big snow clearing operation under way, widening a partially snow-covered portion of the outside lane on Thompson Drive, while also cutting back the snowbank and clearing the pathway. All in all it was a pretty good ride. Even the city-owned public footpath connecting the 200-block of Juniper Drive to the back of Southwood Shopping Plaza on Thompson Drive South, which isn’t a multi-use boulevard pathway, remains quite passable on my bicycle. A water break down around the CIBC last month in the parking lot on the edge of Thompson Plaza when it froze up in the extreme cold was sort of like training for moguls if they expand the event from skiing to bicycling, but one can’t have a smooth ride everywhere and all times in the winter. Likewise, Juniper Drive can be a real challenge for a day or two after a significant snowfall as the city works through its priority plowing schedule.
There have long been folks who rode their bicycles in the winter in Thompson. The first few winters I was here, I’d see an older gentleman, whose name I don’t know, riding in the area of Nelson Road and Oxford Bay. Likewise, I’m told there is a guy from McMunn and Yates Building Supplies who has been winter biking for years. As well, Brian Oliver, a senior process engineer at Vale’s Long Harbour Processing Plant in Newfoundland and Labrador, used to ride his bike to work for a time from his Highland Towers apartment to Vale when he worked for Manitoba Operations a few years ago.
It was Bruce Krentz, however, who put winter bicycling on the map in Thompson. Quite literally in fact with a new walking and cycling map he helped spearhead that was released last October.
While Thompson is making a good start in taking winter bicycling seriously, we have a way to go before we come within sight of Oulu in Finland, which at 65.0167° N is about 1,600 kilometres farther north than Thompson and located just 200 kilometres below the Arctic Circle. Oulu is the sixth largest city in Finland with 141,000 residents and hosted the first-ever two-day international Winter Cycling Congress two years ago. The second congress was in Winnipeg last February.
While they have a warmer climate in northern Finland than Northern Manitoba (the average November temperature in Oulu is -3.1°C), the annual permanent winter snow cover begins on average about Nov. 10, which is pretty much like Thompson, give or take a few days in any particular year.
Anders Swanson, who is from Winnipeg and was a riding force behind last year’s Winter Cycling Congress there, was also at the first conference in Oulu in 2013 and has made a 21:49 Vimeo video called “Winter Cycling for Everyone” about Oulu you can check out here at: http://vimeo.com/67039532
As well, if you are interested in winter cycling you can check out Carly Matthew’s Storify piece, “Wheels don’t stop turning in the winter: The winter cycling trend (with images, tweets)” at: https://storify.com/cematthew/winter-cycling-trend utm_source=story&utm_media=storypage&utm_content=related
Matthew is a multimedia journalist on the staff of The Daily Iowan and majors in journalism and art.
The third Winter Cycling Congress is being held from Feb. 10 to Feb. 12 in Leeuwarden, the capital of Fryslân, in The Netherlands. Leeuwarden has a population of 108,000. The congress is a project of the Winter Cycling Federation, which is based in Oulu.
Oh. And don’t forget. The third annual Winter Bike to Work Day is Friday, Feb. 13, the day after the third Winter Cycling Congress closes in Leeuwarden. Last year, Thompson and Winnipeg were the only two Manitoba cities to officially take part in Winter Bike to Work Day. Want more information on Winter Bike to Work Day? Contact Bruce Krentz by e-mail at: bkrentz@nrha.ca
Bruce will get back to you … well, when he’s not out on his bike.
You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22
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