You know what I love? I fricken love my bike commute. Even though things like having to bike alongside I-5 for a while made me sort of lukewarm about it when I started, I love my ride to work and home again so much.
Recently, I love how it’s crystal clear (albeit dark) in SE Portland when I leave, and then super soupy foggy when I get far enough north, like I’ve biked my way into a magical fairyland. (I also like the feeling of biking through many microclimates on the way to work:)
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(Delta Park, foggy-style)
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I love all the cottonwoods along the Columbia River Slough, slowly losing their leaves so I can see the eagles and red-tailed hawks more clearly. I also love all the winter ducks making their way back for the cold months.
I love how many cold, clear days we’ve had recently, leaves crunching under my tires and making me little-kid gleeful.
I love that last night, biking home super late when no one’s out except for all the people living in tents along the way, I heard snow geese above me in Delta Park, looked up, and could see their magical white bodies winging their way through the sky.
I love it when I see the same people biking either to or from work — though it doesn’t happen as much on this commute as on some of my other ones, that makes it all the more special.
I love that I have a million different options of ways I can bike, depending on what flavor of ride I want and how far I want to go.
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(I also love the heron who always hangs out here no matter what weather, though you can’t see her in this picture cuz she’s at the bottom of the hill)
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Tonight, after a later-night work event, my grand-boss (i.e. my boss’s boss;) asked me if I was going to drive the work truck home or if I had to bike, and I told her totally honestly that there is basically no world in which I would rather drive home. Even if it takes twice as long; even if it’s raining. I fricken love the time I spend on my bike.
I LOVE MY BIKE COMMUTE.
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(Side note: all the cold fog has a downside, which is that it makes the “land bridge” over highway 14, a slightly longer detour that I usually take to get to work, extra slippery, and sometimes that means that I crash my bicycle. And sometimes that means that I have gigantic gnarly bruises and mild whiplash, but I still love my bike commute:)