A Ten-Year Commute 

1      Ten
2      years straight --
3      quite an anniversary.
4      Bike to Work Day
5      has become more than just
6      an event for me -- it's now
7      tradition.  10 years, 750 miles of paradoxes:
8      tiring:invigorating, easy:difficult, communal:solitary, suspenseful:tranquil.
9      I would never trade them away; in fact, cannot --
10    for they reflect (partially) who I am, once a year.

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 10:13:40 -0600 (MDT)
From: David Linder
Subject: whew!

o 35.65 miles
o 1 flat tire
o 11 lawn sprinkler showers
o 1 pleasant stop at the "Happy Market" (50th and Tennyson)
o 3 detours ("Trail Under Construction")
o 1 case of mistaken identity ("Hey, Mack!  Oh, you're not Mack.  Sorry.")
o 1 visit to Starbucks (86th? and Wadsworth)
o Unlimited beautiful scenery
o 1 nice breakfast at the end
o 2 hours, 45 minutes

...and who says you need freeways to commute to Broomfield from Littleton. :)

-- d

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 15:51:31 -0600 (MDT)
From: David Linder <Dave.Linder@Sun.COM>
Subject: Biking to work, June 2002

Bike to Work Day 2002

Today was the fifth year Sun has participated in the Denver area Bike to Work Day event, and, not coincidentally, it was also my fifth time to join in with the two-wheeled crowd.  Rather than getting myself some wood, the traditional fifth anniversary gift, I wanted to find another way to celebrate what has become a regular solstice week event for me.

My first thought was to take advantage of the Light Rail this year and cut my ride by about half.  After all, it's not like I've been riding three times a week to prepare for this year's event.  However, Light Rail was nixed when I realized I would miss one of the highlights of Bike to Work for me -- the early morning ride along the South Platte River greenway.

Then, I thought I would just bag the trip entirely this year claiming an overabundance of busy-ness at work and not enough motivation for the ride.  Fortunately, I came to my senses in time to pick up my Bike to Work Day T-shirt although that still left me without an idea to make this year special.  I began to have recurring visions of fifth anniversary wooden objects.

This year was different than past years because we received a Denver area Bike to Work Day map along with our T-shirt (Thank you, DRCOG! ).  Last night as I was preparing for the trip ("And where did I put my bike shoes this time?"), I looked at the T-shirt and map and suddenly the apparitions of various wooden bike ornaments faded away.  For there on the back of the T-shirt was the LaMar's logo and, on the map, four LaMar's "rest" stops were highlighted!  [For those of you not familiar with LaMar's it is a donut store chain which recently moved into Colorado.]  Not only that, but of the four cholesterol-increasing rest stops, three were in a (more or less) direct line between my home in Littleton and Sun-Broomfield.  Score!  A description of these wonderful Bike to Work Day rest stops follows:

5:45 am: Santa Fe and Prince --
A new store in a new mini-strip mall.  Very friendly workers.  I was the first rider of the day to stop by.  I was reminded they had *just* opened for the day so the rest of the riders would probably show up later (meaning at a more reasonable time).  Wonderful fresh, warm glazed donut!  And, they very confidently told me about the other LaMar's stores on my route which were participating in B2W Day: Kalamuth & 6th, Wadsworth & 91st.

6:45 am: Kalamuth and 6th Avenue --
A new store (of course, all the LaMar's stores are new as they have just started opening them here) at a rather ugly corner.  This one was hard to get to on a bike -- Kalamuth is one-way southbound, I was heading northbound; 6th is one-way eastbound, you can guess which way I was heading.  Good sign: lots of fellow bikers out front.  Crowded inside with donuts everywhere.  The workers weren't as upbeat here, but this was probably their busiest time of day, so I understood.  They wanted me to show proof I was part of B2W Day (as if wearing bike shorts, shoes, helmet, and gloves while sweating in the store was not enough).  At this point, I noticed my Bike to Work Day map had been lost to the wind (probably as I was heading westbound on 6th Avenue), so I panicked...until they mentioned I could show them the B2W Day T-shirt as proof.  Voila!  Out of my bike bag popped the shirt, and they treated me to a nice, cold OJ.  No donut here (I have to maintain my svelte figure), but the ones I saw looked delicious.

8:00 am: Wadsworth and 91st --
There is no Wadsworth and 91st.  So, I checked Wadsworth and 92nd.  No donuts there either, but at least there was an intersection.  Hmmmmmm.  And, I didn't have a map as the 6th Avenue rush hour had destroyed it by now.  What to do, what to do?  Well, I'm a guy, so asking someone was out of the question.  Instead, I continued north along that spectacular biking corridor called Wadsworth Avenue until I noticed a new mini-mall off to the right just south of Wadsworth and 100th.  Eureka!  The third of the three.  The glazed donut was just out of the oven!  Perfect.  And, the workers, again, were very friendly.  I sat at the window and ate my donut only to see 10 bikers go by on Wadsworth with nary a glance over my way.  If they had only known...

Moral of the story: LaMar's is better than wood.

(ref: http://www.lamars.com)

Hope you all enjoyed the ride and see you again next year!

(I still have to ride home...I wonder if LaMar's is open for dinner...)

-- d

---

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 18:19:08 -0600 (MDT)
From: David Linder
Subject: Reflections on Bike to Work Day 2003

Bike to Work Day 2003
June 25, 2003

This year's cool and wet June in the Denver area presaged an uncomfortable, if not soakingly damp, ride for the 2003 Denver-Boulder area Bike to Work (B2W) Day.  For the first 24 days of the month, June 2003 has been one of the coolest and wettest in Denver weather history.  So, when the computer weather models from last week and over the weekend prognosticated a steady upslope rain for B2W morning, I began devising creative ways to waterproof my two-wheeler (most of which included non-NTSB-approved uses of Hefty garbage bags).

To add to the pre-B2W consternation, LaMar's Donuts, a highlight of the 2002 B2W Day for many of us, declined sponsorship for this year's event (perhaps because some unnamed individuals, a.k.a. "moi",  took advantage of last year's free donut offer and rode from one LaMar's to the next for multiple platefuls of the sugary delicacies).

As B2W Day drew closer, it became apparent most of the wet weather would stay north and west of Denver, but it would definitely be cool.  B2W eve, in fact, began and ended cool, cloudy, and drizzly damp -- a day more reminiscent of summer in San Francisco's Marina District than summer along the Front Range of the Rockies.  Temperatures were aiming for the cool mid-40's for the B2W morning ride so I spent the evening before searching for all those items I thought had safely begun a 6-month furlough in the basement -- riding gloves, pants, pullover, earmuffs, etc.

Originally, my plan (well, really it was more of a passing ludicrous thought than a plan) was to try to follow only bike paths and legitimate bike routes from Littleton to Broomfield.  Given the cool weather, the threat for morning drizzle, and the number of extra miles I would have to travel to carry out such a plan (Commerce City is not the most direct waypoint between Littleton and Broomfield), I regained my senses and quickly nixed that idea.  Instead, I went back to the tried and true method -- start with the enjoyable Littleton-to-Denver ride along the South Platte, then become increasingly frustrated while marking out a stair step pattern across west Denver, Westminster, and Arvada.

Even following the tried and true method, I discovered a few new things this year and rediscovered some old aggravations that I had long since purged from my memory.  To succinctly summarize, a few stream of consciousness ruminations (in more or less chronological order) follow:

• The South Platte River trail: Still one of the finest examples of an urban/suburban bike trail around.  Ironically, a natural disaster (the June 1965 South Platte River flood) was a precursor to the park-like setting existing today along the river -- without this flood, development probably would have overwhelmed the river.


• Either someone was a big advocate for oat bran's positive effect on LDL levels or Costco was having a special because the army-sized boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios at the first B2W South Platte trail rest stop looked a little out of place.  But, as is often the case, it was the thought that counts.


• I missed not going to LaMar's this year.  If I had had more time, I would have stopped at the Panera Bread place down in Littleton (a sponsor for this year's event), but I was too busy trying to get warm in the 45-degree weather.  Plus I knew the Convergence Park maze still lay ahead (see next item!).


• I'm convinced!  Denver's Confluence Park is a misnomer.  Instead, it should be called Convergence Park because all bike paths lead into it, but no bike paths lead out of it.  For the second year running (says something about my long-term memory -- or lack thereof), I could not find the easy way to get from the South Platte River trail at Confluence Park, cross I-25, and begin the trek through west Denver.  I might have been able to figure it out, but my continuous mutterings of "if I had only continued on to Commerce City" were impeding my analytical skills.


• I sure would like to meet the bicycle-challenged city planner who ruined the great ("Woo Hoo!") Tennyson Street hill by putting a stop sign halfway down the hill.


• The Ralston Creek bike path in Arvada: A nice escape from riding on busy streets.


• Wadsworth Blvd.: Except for the noise, traffic, potholes, narrow shoulders, strip malls, stoplights, rocks, nails, storm sewers, cruising teenagers, and the innumerable times I was forced to extricate my cleats from the pedals, Wadsworth is a bicycler's dream.


• On my return trip I discovered the Little Dry Creek bike trail from 80th and Wadsworth to 64th and Pecos.  It was an excellent find and cut about a mile off my return trip.  After viewing the wonderful industrial parks around 64th and Pecos, I had to wonder who would build a bike trail terminating there.  (I'm guessing the right of way was cheap. :)


• And, last but not least, on my return leg down the South Platte trail I discovered an added benefit of drafting (following closely behind a fellow rider and having them block the wind for you) -- the lead bicycler also has the pleasure of clearing the trail of pesky nat and mosquito swarms.  My compliments go to the charitable bicycler who I followed for a brisk 5 miles last evening.  He's probably still trying to get the bugs out of his biking jersey. :)

So, another year, another enjoyable ride.  And, despite the pre-B2W worries, the weather was not a factor -- if anything, the ride home was as close to perfect weatherwise as one could imagine.  Now, if only there was a bike path from Convergence Park to Broomfield...

-- d

For further information :)
--------------------------

o  Denver Regional Council of Governments, B2W Resources -
http://www.ridearrangers.org/biketoworkday/resources.cfm

o  LaMar's Donuts -
http://www.lamars.com

o  The June 1965 South Platte River Flood -
http://www.denver-rmn.com/millennium/1214mile.shtml

o  Oat Bran and Cholesterol -
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4494