Over the past year I've registered over 3400 miles on several different bicycles. I've spent well over 200 hours in this pursuit and have ridden in four different states in many different conditions. But until today I never used my bike for any purpose other than exercise and fun. Today that changed.

My bike became my transportation home this afternoon. I spent a good bit of time over the past several days thinking about this ride. What course should I take? How dangerous is it to travel through a major downtown area? How long will it take? How far is it?

I was reasonably sure that the ride was less than 30 miles. I've taken dozens of rides of that length over the past 11 months. So why was this different? Thoughts of the unknown is my guess.

The ride down South Temple to State street was probably the most fun. I hardly peddled and noticed that by the time I stopped for the light I'd logged 3.84 miles. Getting from State Street to 4th West was the trickiest part. Should I go to the sidewalk or ride between the lanes. At State Street I decided on the safest route and rested at the red light among a group of pedestrians. But at the light changes I jumped out in front of the group and moved over into the traffic lanes. After that I decided to be part of the rolling traffic.

I took care to look behind me and to both sides often over the next few blocks. The trickiest exchange came at 300 West where I found myself to the left side of the through lane. I knew that I'd need to transition to the right side of the lane once through the intersection or be pushed into the light rail trains. Fortunately the only car following me through waited for me to clear and move to the right. From there on out the traffic was never a problem.

I snaked behind the Gateway mall, turned south for a couple of blocks and then back to the west until I arrived at 900 West. It was at about that time that I first noticed the wind, headed directly from the north. That was a bad sign and I knew from past experience that this would add a good bit of time to my ride. A few more miles and a couple of big streets later and I was on Redwood Road (1700 West) with a clear shot home.

That stretch on Redwood Road was brutal. I'd guess that from Tenth North in Salt Lake to 5th South in Bountiful is about 8 miles. I was too busy worrying about big trucks to pay attention to my computer, so it's just a guess. There isn't much of a shoulder before the 215 overpass, so I got a bit nervous. Actually, a couple of trucks scared me. I could hear a big vehicle closing in behind me. Then a big push of wind along with a large truck pushed past. Then there was a drafting effect that helped kill the headwind and pulled me along for a few yards. The thrill of panic was displaced by a cool feeling of being pulled along in the wake of a big truck and made the experience almost pleasant. Almost.

A big gravel hauling truck decided to stop dead on the 215 overpass. And a couple of his brother rigs were right along side and caused a slow-moving blockade. I ended up going around following the big rigs out into the middle lane. A nice lady in a little white sedan waited for me to find safety on the downhill side of the overpass and everything worked out well. And with that I was back into familiar territory and the adventure part of the ride was over.

The whole thing took a little more than 90 minutes. A little too long but justifiable with the headwind factored in. I took the most direct route once I turned north at 900 West. The total distance was 27.52 miles, give or take a hundredth. I don't think I could do that going in and back every day. I need to find a way to make it happen a couple of times each week.

I gained one other insight from this experience. All of those miles on my computer became real. It's different when the miles mean something, getting from work to home. Usually it's just a number. I rode 15 miles, or 30, or 50. Today these miles meant more. It was my way home............
3:15:40 PM    comment []