While winter riding can be difficult when due to the usually cold, wet, and dark conditions, this January’s warmer than average temperatures and sunny afternoons, as well as the looming cabin fever staying inside due to COVID-19, have found many of us logging more outdoors miles than usual.

The MassBike staff has found ourselves taking advantage of the dry January weather by exploring our local rail trails. Jes took her first ride of 2021 on the Southern New England Trunkline Trail in Douglas. Galen biked along the scenic Massachusetts Water Resource Authority Aqueduct Trails in Needham. While Chrystal has been biking on the Mattapoisett Rail Trail whose phase 1B will be open to the public this spring. Even as it gets colder and wetter, we want to make sure you are prepared to keep riding outside all winter long.

As MassBike welcomes in the New Year, we first must acknowledge what this past year meant for us and for so many people who faced loss and tough challenges. We have all been forced to look at the world with new eyes, and to ask hard questions about how we treat each other and build a better world together. For MassBike this meant continuously pivoting our work to face the headwinds and manage each moment to maintain momentum for bike advocacy across the state. Through it all, we kept rolling. Below are a few notable inflection points that defined our year.