Bike Fest – Bike To Work 2012

To me it seemed Bike-to-Work (day, week, month) was always a signal to dust off the skinny tire bike and start racking up miles, if not started already. In the desert the dust-off chore happens all year and not because a set of wheels has been put away for the winter. Our local celebration of all-things-bike covered a six week period ending last weekend. I was able to participate in a number of events including Bike-to-Work. 

My bike-to-work is different from most. No rack, no locker just a backpack with a couple fresh T’s, tennis shoes and a leash. It’s also a bit longer commute than most with the upside being lots of opportunities for interesting scenery. Also plenty of boring miles as well. As part of Bike-To-Work this year I took along a camera a couple times to capture my commute. Once was a stop-and-dismount every couple of miles regardless of the visual boredom and boy there’s plenty. While literally hundreds of miles of bike-lanes exist in and around town as it turns out several clients live just a few blocks to a couple miles off the somewhat spartan trail system. As such I generally take the trails where possible even when a first class lane exists sometimes mere feet away. Traffic, even at the somewhat odd hours required of my job, is horrible. Maybe a better description. It’s always present, consistently in a hurry and usually distracted. And loud. The headphones get a workout every ride that involves the road.

This was a lot of fun; for me anyway. Having run some of these routes several times I can attest to all sorts of bizarre sighting both human and animal.