Reflections on Bike Commuting

For the last few years, I've been a semi-regular bike commuter, opting to drive whenever it was too wet, too cold or I was just too tired. One year ago this week, I decided to commute to work exclusively by bicycle. I haven't driven to work since.

I've ridden when it was 5 degrees and when it was 100 degrees. I've ridden when it snowed and when it rained and I've ridden on days when I felt too tired. In the past year, I've ridden 3500 miles and spent 250 hours outdoors that I wouldn't have otherwise. It's been great.

Bike commuting puts me in a better frame of mind. It gives me plenty of time to think and enjoy my surroundings. I see the same people walking everyday - alone or, more often, with dogs. I see fathers fishing with their young children.

I've had turkeys, and a cow, cross the road in front of me. I ride past a pond where I see many turtles, who've dragged themselves onto the rocks to warm up after a cool night.

The seasons change with a subtlety that I didn't used to notice. One season lingers on just long enough to make it seem like the new season suddenly arrived.

The winter brings an earlier sunset and with it comes a different experience. I see deer staring at me as I ride by in the dark. There's a heron standing in the same spot almost every night. The Christmas decorations don't fly by as quickly - my favorite is the Abominable Snowman putting the star on a tree.

I'm looking forward to what the next year of bike commuting brings. I'll finish by relating a couple of stories from the last year.

A Successful Campaign

Last spring, I would see a guy every day who was running for a local elective office. Each day, rain or shine, he would stand with his campaign sign, waving and smiling at everyone who passed. This proved to be a successful strategy. After he won, he stood there one last day holding a sign that said "Thank You".

Faster Than a 4Runner

One day as I was riding home from work, I noticed a guy in a white Toyota 4Runner pass me. Normally, I wouldn't take note of this, but he took a long time to pass me. The road surface was very rough and the driver was proceeding cautiously, something I certainly appreciated. As I was nearing home, 30 minutes later, the driver of the same 4Runner pulled alongside me, rolled down his window and asked, "Didn't I pass you a long time ago?" I guess he wasn't taking the fast route home.

Sweeping Away the Cobwebs

It sure has been a long time since I've posted anything new. I'd say that I've been too busy, but mostly I've been too lazy.

In the time that's passed, much has happened:

• My 2009 canoe racing season started off well, but ended abruptly in late June after I injured my lower back. I was only able to compete in two more races for the rest of the year.
• I rode the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee (D2R2) for the second year. This is a 100K dirt road biking adventure in Western Massachusetts with lots of climbing. A friend put together a nice write-up of the ride. I also made a video.
• In October, I was part of a three-person team who won the Tully Lake Triathlon. After my brother Seth paddled well and our friend Andy ran like the wind, I finished up with a strong mountain bike leg. Our winning time was the fastest in the three-year history of the race.
• On December 2nd, I started biking to work on a regular basis and have not driven to work since. This helped me lose 20 lbs.
• The 2010 canoe race season started off well with a strong showing in the Run of the Charles.

Now that I've caught up, perhaps I can stay caught up.

Columbus Day Weekend

In what has become a near-annual tradition, Seth and I headed north to the White Mountains for a Columbus Day camping trip. This is always a fun trip that lets the cousins spend some time together. Seth's girls always a bewildered by Calvin's behavior, which is typical of a teenage boy. Calvin tries his best to make sure they are bewildered.

Since it was October, the weather is a roll of the dice. In the past, we've endured wind, rain and cold. This year, it was cold the first night but otherwise the weather was perfect. As we gathered around the campfire to cook our "highly nutritious" hot dogs, the temperature dropped into the low 30's. We piled on the layers of clothing and finished the meal with s'mores.

After a cold night's sleep, we went out for a large breakfast to prepare for our hike. The hike is usually a source of tension since I haven't always chosen well. Two years ago, we decided to hike Mt. Webster and Mt. Jackson. The guide book called for a four hour hike, but we ended up needing nearly seven. The last hour of the hike was in the dark, without lights, and I still hear about it.

Determined not to repeat my mistake, I decided that Mt. Jefferson would be a good choice. The hike up Jefferson is a relatively short, five mile round trip. To make it interesting, much of the hike is above tree line and very rugged.

The start of the hike is deceptively easy, climbing gently for awhile. Before long, the trail starts to head up steeply, with only a brief break before heading above tree line. Once above tree line, the real fun starts. On the way to the summit, there are three large mounds of rock in the way. The trail leads you up and over each of them. This requires a fair amount of scrambling over rocks, using your hands almost as much as your feet in some sections.

Throughout the day, gliders were soaring overhead, riding the wind that we couldn't feel from the trail. In all my years of hiking, it was the first time I'd ever seen gliders.

At the summit, we were no longer sheltered from the wind, so we didn't linger. On the way down, the steep sections were more daunting and required some care. Although they were sometimes intimidated, everyone made it down without incident.

There wasn't too much complaining this year, so I think I did a better job of choosing the hike. It also helped that we made it back to the car before dark.

Bureaucrat Beatdown

I have written previously about the decision by Pennsylvania officials to eliminate the feeding of bread to the carp at the Linesville Spillway. A decades old family tradition of tossing bread to the fish was being shutdown.

Apparently, I was not alone in my displeasure with this decision.

A few weeks ago, a public meeting was held to discuss the situation and 350 people showed up. This was the first opportunity for the public to voice their displeasure about the decision and they did not hold back.

Parents were there with their young children, mourning the loss of a low-cost family destination. Local business owners complained about the loss of tourist dollars. Over half a million people visit the spillway each year, spending an estimated $5 million.

Officials heard the message and decided to delay the decision for a year to allow for greater study of the issue. Hopefully, a year is long enough for them to come to their senses.

National Champions Again

The 2008 Canoe Orienteering National Championship was held on the St. Joseph River in Bristol, Indiana. The weather was beautiful, as was the river. We were the defending National Champions, so the pressure was on to defend our title.

Canoe orienteering is different from other canoe races. In some ways, it mimics the way you might navigate on a wilderness canoe trip where you navigate from campsite to campsite using your map. While there are no campsites in canoe orienteering, you are given a map and you do use it to navigate.

Just before starting, you receive your map and a small sheet of paper with numbered boxes. The map highlights a number of locations that each competitor must visit. At each location, there is an orange and white marker and a punch with a unique pattern. The punch is used to mark your control card to prove that you visited the location. The person or team who visits the most control locations wins. In the event of a tie, the fastest time wins. It isn't always the fastest paddlers who win. The key to winning a canoe orienteering event is choosing the best route.

The course in Bristol required travel both upstream and downstream. It included island clusters and shallow water and a meandering stream near Hermance Park. There were plenty of opportunities for creative route selection.

The teams started two minutes apart with some paddlers heading upstream and others heading downstream. Seth and I decided to start downstream. We reasoned that the long upstream paddle against a fairly strong current would be better if it were earlier when we were still fresh.

We paddled directly to control 1, ducked under the tree it was attached to and headed for control 2. We quickly decided that the best approach would be "split and go". Seth, who was in the bow, jumped out of the boat and ran to control 2. Meanwhile, I also jumped out of the boat and ran through the shallow channel between the islands with the canoe in tow. When Seth rejoined me, we started paddling again.

At this point, we spotted the team who had started two minutes before us. They were wading upstream through the shallow water while we were trying to paddle in the same water. We briefly considered wading ourselves, but Seth observed that even though the paddling was tough, we were going about the same speed as the other team.

We continued paddling upstream punching controls along the way, though we decided to save control 5 for later. Control 11 was in a channel splitting an island in two. We reached the control at about the same time as another team and we decided to "split and go." Again, I ran with the canoe through the channel and waited in the middle of the river for Seth to rejoin me.

Next was Control 10, which was tied to a partially submerged tree. When we arrived, another boat was busy punching their control card, so I instructed Seth to jump out of the canoe and wade to the control. This way we wouldn't have to wait for them to pull away from the submerged tree. When the water went up past Seth's waist, I knew we had made a bit of a mistake. He was going to have a hard time getting back in the canoe, especially if I didn't get in the water, too. After a minor struggle, we both re-boarded the canoe and finished collecting the upstream controls.

All that was left for us was to decide what to do about control 5. There were a couple of options we considered. One was to paddle to the control and then portage to the finish at Hermance Park. The other was to paddle to Hermance Park and have Seth run to the control and return to the finish.

We decided to paddle to the control and it turned out to be the right move. The control wasn't as far up the stream as the map showed, so we punched the control and quickly returned to the main river and paddled to the finish. Others, who decided to run to control 5 encountered stinging nettles and came out of the woods complaining. I could relate since I had a similar experience with saw grass at the National Championships in Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

Throughout the race, we had no idea how we were doing against who we considered our primary competition. They had started at different times and we never saw them until the finish. In the end, we finished with the fastest overall time - 54:09. We were relieved since we had set that as our goal beforehand.