Biking to Work, version 8 - June 22, 2005

This year I celebrated my eighth anniversary participating in the Denver-Boulder Bike to Work Day.  And, my legs have been reminding me all day today that I did, indeed, participate yesterday.  Each year has brought a different set of experiences -- some funny, some ridiculous, some uplifting, and, a few, unpleasant.  As in the past, this year had its own unique character which explains why I keep coming back to this event and have made it a tradition every June.

Significantly, well, for me anyway, I rode through a meaningful milestone this year as I surpassed 500 total miles traveled during my years of bike-to-working.  After making it home safely last night with nary a pratfall, I've accumulated something like 560 miles of Bike to Work Day commuting.  And, that's 560 without including the miles traveled while trying to recover from moments of uncertainty when my location had no correlation with the pre-planned route (a long-winded way of saying, "when I was lost").  Compared to next month's Le Tour where the professionals will cover over 2000 miles in 21 days, 560 miles in eight years seems rather undistinguished.  True, but I'm no professional as some will attest, particularly those who have seen me fall over while trying to unclip my shoes from the pedals at stoplights.

For perspective, I grabbed a road atlas and looked to see what's about 560 miles, as the crow bicycles, from Littleton Colorado, my origination point for the Bike to Work days.  Rather than getting me to and from Sun's Broomfield campus, all of this Bike to Work day riding could have led me instead to more exotic destinations like Sioux City, IA, which has the unfortunate distinction of having SUX for an airport code.  Or, I could have made it to a variety of vacation spots like Great Basin National Park in Nevada, Lake Oahe along the upper Missouri River in the Dakotas, Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, WY, or Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.  A vacation after a 500-mile ride sounds like a good thing although relaxing in a crater may not be the most effective method to heal sore legs.

Cities along the 560-mile radius circle with Littleton at the center include Omaha, NE, OK City, OK, Miles City, MT, Hobbs NM, Globe, AZ, and West Wendover, NV, which I believe exists only because it is on the gambling-legal side of the NV-UT border.  Even more interesting are Hurricane, UT, taking me back to my meteorological roots, and Arco, ID, a remote -- very remote -- town in Idaho where the U.S. Navy provides nuclear reactor training -- remoteness in this case is an advantage.  My connection to Arco is that my father went through the training there as part of his Navy career.

Following my style from previous Bike to Work Day summaries, the following is a compendium of mostly stream of consciousness kinds of observations about this year's event as seen from sitting atop my road bike's saddle:

• A scintillating sunrise marked my morning departure.  As one who unabashedly claims allergic reactions to any activities before, say, 9:00 a.m., being able to view the sunrise was especially inspiring.


• This year I received the Bike to Work Day t-shirt (another of my primary reasons for participating every year) in advance.  This, of course, led to all sorts of wholesome thoughts like just bagging the ride and driving directly to the free breakfast stops for bagels and orange juice.  But extending my string of successful B2W Day transits won out over laziness.  Slothfulness must await another day.
  Speaking of the t-shirt, this year's version could be ordered in blue -- a nice variation from the stack of plain white shirts of previous years.


• At the Confluence Park breakfast stop this year, I chatted with a number of fellow cyclists who were traveling long distances (> 30 miles) for their pedal-powered commute.  Either they are as crazy as me, not likely, or the invigorating effect of the blue t-shirts was greater than I imagined.  Also, many thanks to REI who was providing free water bottles, discount coupons, and, most importantly, breakfast items at Confluence Park.


• In the unusual coincidence category, as I was stopped at a stop sign, another cyclist pulled up next to me to ask directions (obviously unaware of my previous experiences getting lost in Confluence Park and west Denver).  It turns out she was an employee of Storage Technology Corp. which has been in the news with Sun recently.  Even though I mislocated Pecos Street for her (I pointed to the right; she pointed to the left to alert me to the Pecos St. street sign a block from where we were stopped) she seemed to politely accept my description of how to find the bike trails through Arvada providing the most direct route to Broomfield.  It's amazing what an announced acquisition will do to help people trust you.


• Little Dry Creek trail through Commerce City and Arvada was more like Little Mud Creek trail this year.  Apparently, the previous evening's thunderstorms produced enough runoff to cover parts of the bike path with mud -- an interesting challenge to navigate on a thin-tired road bike.  The good news is that someone in Arvada cleared some of the mud from the trail during the day making the return trip easier.


• With afternoon temperatures near mid-summer values, this year's Bike to Work Day was the warmest in 4 years.  My main concern on the return trip was trying to avoid testing the lightning rod capabilities of a metal bike.  Fortunately, the afternoon thunderstorm activity was suppressed by some drier air that filtered into the Denver metro area from the northeast.


• Best Giveaway: Free Cold Stone ice cream at Sun - Broomfield.


• Once again I rode Wadsworth Blvd. as the most direct route from Broomfield to the Arvada bike trails.  Most direct is not synonymous with safest.  For those from California, you can think of Wadsworth as the El Camino Real of the Denver area, but without the history.  It's basically a 4- to 6-lane road with narrow shoulders bisecting a 20-mile long strip mall.  Two highlights from my Wadsworth experience this year:
  1. On the recently reconstructed portion of the road where there has yet to be much strip mall development, I was able to fly down a "Woo Hoo" kind of hill at almost 45 mph.  I must have still been delirious from the Cold Stone ice cream high.
  2. For the more congested portion of Wadsworth, I decided to take the bike path/sidewalk this year thinking it would be safer than the narrow shoulder of the street.  Fine idea until I came over a blind hill to find a shopping cart smack dab in the middle of the safer bike path.  My crash avoidance and foot unclipping skills were tested.  I still know who I am today so I must have passed the test.


• Finally, as I am reminded every year, the South Platte bikeway is something we are fortunate to have here in Denver.  It is a joy to ride, both at a leisurely pace as I did in the morning during the stillness of sunrise, and at a steady 22 mph in a pack of Le Tour wannabes in the late afternoon when hunger and fatigue were tugging me home.

All in all, another year of milestones exceeded, surprises on the bike, and satisfaction for being able to join a unique community which meets only once per year (as opposed to the recently inaugurated set of OpenSolaris communities who meet continually and are changing the world one line of C code at a time).  I hope to continue the string and navigate number nine next year.

[General] ( June 23, 2005 12:41 PM ) Permalink | Comments [2]