pallen

ugh, and today I drove my car.
I've had stiff headwinds home (going south) for months, except last friday - last friday was glorious. Near-effortlessly holding ~20+ mi/hr on long flat stretches is really fun.

Bud Bent

I'm back to crossing McCart at Westcreek again (construction has made a mess at the north end of the park I was crossing), but I'm going to work an hour earlier than when I saw you that morning. I usually cross McCart before 5:30 am.

Doohickie

Today was a great commute, even with the headwind... it wasn't all that much really.

I usually leave the house at 5:30. If I left less than a half hour earlier I would catch ya. The construction on Jennie Dr. is almost done- just some of the driveway aprons left. There is a mud bog at the end of the parking lot though where the park trail begins (on the north side of the park). I rode it this weekend. Once that mud gets cleaned up or dries out, it should be good riding down Jennie to Edgecliff. Not sure about Duringer. If you use Google Maps Bicycle option, it now shows the trail through the park as a bike path.

I'm glad they're fixing things up and they seem to be moving pretty fast on a lot of the projects but day to day seems like Russian Roulette in terms of which routes are clear and which are under construction.

tarwheel 

Lately I've enjoyed smelling the honeysuckle, which is in full bloom. I like seeing young kids, who always look and often say something funny or nice. For every jerk who honks or yells "get off the road," I tend to get just many thumbs up and "atta boys" from other drivers. ... But tailwinds? I've never heard of such a thing.

nashcommguy

Yes! It works both ways. When working 2nd shift it was the ride home @ 11:30-12:45 AM...maybe 5 cars in the whole 20 miles. 1st shift going in is substantially more busy, but much less at 5:00 AM than it would be a couple hours later. There are stretches when all I can hear is the hum of my tires on the asphalt.

See turkeys, deer, geese, raccons, opossums, domestic bison, etc. Once on my way home on 2nd shift I came around a 90 degree bend in the middle of nowhere to roll up on a herd of donkeys. About 30 of them... Took me a couple of months searching local farms to find out where they came from. They looked at me w/ears forward so I knew I was ok. As I rode through the herd they gracefully moved out of my way. They may have a reputation for being stubborn, but they were very polite to me that night.

no motor?

They're for people who are going the opposite way that I am.

JeremyLC

Also, this guy jumping down from the window sill and running to the door to greet me when I get home. (Yes, cats do that, too, not just dogs! )



(Shown here inspecting my handlebars for defects or malfunctions.)

wolfchild

I always loved watching nature, that's one of the reasons why I enjoy biking everyday. I never get bored looking at: forests, fields, the sky, trees, plants, lakes, swamps, rivers, stars, moon, sun, rain, mist, snow ice ,wildlife... I love to feel the wind, cool air in the early morning, I love to watch seasons and the changes that they bring to the landscape around me...spring, summer, fall, winter , every season has something interesting to offer. I am very lucky, the suburbs where I live have a lot of green spaces, ravines and nature. I see all kinds of wildlife: deer, coyotees, foxes, small game, birds, salmon spawning up the river in the fall. I purposly add extra miles to my commute just to enjoy all those things.

rex_kramer

+1

rex_kramer

Nice tailwind for once today on my ride home. Without the storms, I'm always stuck riding into a prevailing headwind.

Ira B

Racing rabbits I startle alongside the road.
The fresh salt air.
The smell of the forest after the rain.
The downhill run into Coupeville.
Evenings nice enough to ride my road bike.
The way I feel the next day after a brisk ride home the night before.

Titmawz

The simple pleasure of riding my bike =)

MikeyBoyAz

short stretch of road that borders the alfalfa fields with swather running mmmmmmm... good time to ride slower.

Titmawz

Heard once a small child riding on the sidewalk with her little pink bike with tassels and side wheels tell her mom "I want to get one of those bikes when I grow up"... That comment made my day and put a tear in my eye =D

531phile 

Seeing a couple riding a tandem always puts a smile to my face. Trying to keep up with them quickly wipes that away.

Doohickie

The snowy egret and the blue heron.



(Finally got a picture of both of them together.)

Bud Bent

Wow, we're within a mile of each other at 5:30 am then. If they would ever close that one block gap between Risinger Road and Carolina Drive, I'd be riding right past your house, rather than doing that jaunt down Sycamore School Road.

ItsJustMe

If I have a morning headwind, it'll have flipped around and be an evening headwind. The wind here is nearly always from the west which is a headwind on the way home. The best I can hope for is that sometimes there's no wind at all in the morning. I do get tailwinds sometimes when the weather is highly variable, which means that most of the time that means it's accompanied by rain, but 3 or 4 times a year I will get a tailwind and otherwise decent weather.

Just riding my bike is enough. It also helps that since getting back in the saddle my blood pressure WITHOUT meds is down to below what I could get it to with meds but no riding.

Tourfan

Effortlessly tailing a roadie at 40kph on a mountain bike, and pretending it was me and not the roaring tailwind.

jdswitters

Took a 3/4 mile detour this morning for a coffee, and found myself going by a 1/3 mile stretch of lilacs in bloom on the right of the bike lane, all different colors.

mttx

At this time in Ottawa, ON it is the Canadian Tulips Festival. Riding along the canal with all the tulips blooming is beautiful.

https://www.tulipfestival.ca/

Glynis27

I love being led down the trail by a bat or two on my way home at night. They fly directly in front of me about 10' away. I assume they are catching bugs that are attracted by my headlight. They lead the way for a mile or two, completely silently, and then disappear. I enjoy seeing all the other animals too; deer, bunnies, birds singing, opossums, toads, skunks, owls, squirrels, etc. This time of year all the frogs and toads are singing too. It's almost deafening in spots.

I love being the only one on the trail for miles. I love when the temperature drops low enough on the ride home that I don't get overheated and I can find a fast, comfortable pace. I love when the weather calls for thunderstorms and instead it ends up just being a light mist. I love finding a new route that I didn't know about previously.

no motor?

Loved going outside to check the temperature and finding I had dressed right for the wildly fluctuating temperatures we've been having. And I get to take my first ride in the dark with the replacement Magicshine battery tonight too!

AdamDZ

I sometimes get "Cool bike!" from kids around here. Makes my day, particularly considering that it's a black commuter with fenders, racks, panniers and stuff. Once some kid said to me that he'd like to be bale to haul stuff on his bike too

Yup. That's pretty much it.

Doohickie

BTW, I did the jaunt through Westcreek Park on the way home yesterday. The only "construction" to ride over is maybe 5-10 feet of stone at the end of Duringer, where it meets Jennie. The mud bog at the end of the parking lot is dry.... for now.



As for stuff I love, I passed a friend of mine out with her daughter, both on bikes. They did 8 miles together; the daughter's already riding her age! How awesome is that?