Mental map

I seriously need to spend more time on my bike. One day I went 19 miles, but the rest of the days I just went to and from work and that's only a little over 8 miles. Better than nothing I guess but not enough to really be in shape for cycling.

Hardly anyone is commuting on a bike here in my local area. They might be cycling downtown I don't know. But in this light industrial area it is a very small number of people who ride a bike to work. There is so much sprawl. I usually only see one other person at the most but I'm sure there are a handful. Most days I don't see another cyclist who is going to work. There are hundreds of big SUVs and trucks with one occupant in comparison. I see many of the same vehicles every day. The bike path is always empty and the freeway next to it, and the secondary roads are always full of cars trucks and SUVs. More and more I see a Toyota Prius in the mix. The other day there was an accident and the westbound lane was backed up for miles and miles. I wanted to feel good about that since I was on a bike, but there was really nothing good about it.

You start to get a different perspective of things when you ride a bike to work. The road department swept the shoulder clean earlier this week. That makes my life easier. I have to ride on the road for about a mile and a half before I get to the bike path. Now I watch each day as new litter shows up on my route. I make a mental map of where the broken beer bottles are so I don't forget and ride over the glass. This morning I counted five new empty cigarette boxes in a one mile stretch and one new broken beer bottle. Numerous cigarette butts. I assume that this litter is thrown out of cars and not coming from bike riders, but who knows?

I'm surprised they even built a bike path and bother to maintain it. It could honestly be said that people don't use it enought to justify the expense and the money would be better spent making more roads for cars. A couple of weeks ago the weeds were overgrowing the bike path. So they came along with a mower and mowed on each side of it. But they left all of the debris just laying there on the path. I was kind of worried about getting a flat. It's a good thing we don't have thorns here. Eventually the wind and weather blew the path somewhat clean. There's no doubt that whoever cut the weeds isn't a cyclist and just doesn't care.

***
Update. I got ready to ride my bike at noon and noticed I forgot to pack my tire pump in my pack. No pump. Not good. I never go anywhere without a pump and spare tube. I haven't had a flat all year so I figured I'd make it home ok. I got on to the section of trail that they cut the weeds on and I was flying along at about 25mph with the wind at my back. And my smooth drivetrain developed a vibration and so I came to a stop. Flat rear tire. No pump. Not good. I had the cell phone but the cell phone was dead. So I hiked up this hillside with my bike to the road and stuck my thumb out. My bike shoes don't allow you to walk very far due to the cleats. It was about two miles back to work. The first two trucks that passed didn't stop. The third one did. I got a ride back to work in a great big truck with one guy driving it. :) Nice guy.