Spoke too soon

The deer are back. Despite the broad daylight overcast but still bright skies yesterday afternoon, the first doe of the season jumped onto the trail in front me shortly after Smiths Switch. She stood in the other lane as I slowly approached, and then ambled off to the side of the trail. We eyed each other warily as I passed. I thought about stopping and snapping a photo, but I'm pretty sure she would have dashed away by the time I wrestled my phone from the pannier.

Now that I think about it, I should have quickly looked to my right to ensure that she wasn't a harbinger and several others were lying in wait to ambush me. I'll remember to do that next time.

In other news, the facilities staff is trying to kill me by nearly dropping spent compact fluorescent bulbs on my head. He missed, thankfully, but I shan't be hanging out barefoot in my cube anytime soon.

Other observations

The majority of my bike commute is via the suburban "countryside". Okay, it's countryside on one side of the trail and car dealerships, a golf course, and an office park on the other... Anyway, during the morning commute, I'm by myself much of the time, at least as far as fellow humans are concerned. The local wildlife, though, gives me something else to enjoy observing along the ride.

The kamikaze rabbits haven't been around lately; they may be more of a spring phenomenon. And the deer haven't begun spooking me as I'm riding home well after dawn and well before dusk. In another month, though, I'll need to keep a careful eye out for the does.

Yesterday morning, I noticed dozens upon dozens of funnel webs nestled in the grass shoulders of the trail. The dew glistened in the morning sun and I was made aware of just how many spiders live along the trail. I'm not a fan of creatures with what I consider the wrong number of legs and I'm now leery of pulling over into the grass between Pacific Blvd and Smiths Switch. ~shiver~

Squirrels are, of course, ubiquitous but they're outnumbered by groundhogs. The groundhogs are fairly brazen: I passed a couple of guys cropping (spider-filled) grass right up against the trail the other day. Scott's even nicknamed a couple of groundhogs "Allen" and "Steve".

I haven't seen any foxes in many months and hope they'll pop back out. The chipmunks have been absent, too. Like the deer, I suppose both fox(es) and chipmunks will reappear when autumn is in full swing. My most favorite discovery -- aside from the fox, that is -- was the lone turtle trundling across the trail and into the grass toward the golf course. It was quite beautiful and much faster than I'd been led to believe that turtles could be.

Ground-dwellers aren't the only creatures about, of course. The trees and bushes along the trail are visited by cardinals, blue jays, red-winged blackbirds, robins, mockingbirds, crows, turkey vultures, and many other birds which I don't recognize. Bird song is a wonderful soundtrack to my morning commute and I am quite aware of its absence in the afternoon/evening.

What critters, aside from the typical household pets, do you see on your rides? Do they pop out at different times of day or in different seasons?

Added later... G.E.'s comment reminded me about the skunk that spooked me a few weeks ago. I also had a butterfly smash into my basket during Sunday's ride. I was going to pull over to free it, but it managed to untangle itself and fly away to menace another cyclist. :)

Group ride, interrupted

The Bike Me DC group met up at the Herndon Depot yesterday for a casual ride to the Vienna Depot and back, and I rode the three miles from home to Herndon to meet the group for the ride. We had lovely weather despite one member wearing his cursed jersey again. It rains every time he wears that jersey (the Reston Century riders can thank him), except for last night. Hooray!

We took off shortly after 6pm and the speed demons left six of us in the dust. Eventually, another woman -- Rebecca -- and I pulled ahead of the last four folks. Rebecca and I had wound up pushing our bikes up the final hill during last year's Great Pumpkin Ride and discovered that our cruising speeds are compatible. We rode side by side and chattered happily about upcoming group rides, vacation plans, and bicycle maintenance. We even continued chatting as we rode up the hills that both of us find troubling. It felt great to have a riding companion with similar strength.

A couple of miles outside of Vienna, I hit a pothole. It jarred me and Lily, but she seemed okay. I heard an odd sound and thought that I might have damaged one of my tires, but they weren't losing air. Rebecca pulled ahead of me and eventually left me in the dust. I couldn't get any speed and momentum was nil. My body was starting to hurt, too: hands, back, sides, tush, and feet. I was only ten miles in, with fourteen to go, and I was miserable. As I approached the Depot, two ladies from the far behind group passed me. When I joined the group, I examined my back tire and realized that the brake clamped down on the rim at certain points. I told the ride leader that I was going to take my bike up to the Vienna branch of Spokes, Etc, and have them take a look. The guys, of course, flocked to my bike and tried to fix the problem. I stepped back and let them tweak to their hearts' content. Despite the team's best efforts, my brake still wouldn't let go of the tire. One of the guys did notice that the tire was slightly out of true and that was most likely causing the problem.

The group didn't like leaving me behind but I told them I'd be fine and would have my husband come rescue me if the bike couldn't be fixed this evening. With that, I walked my bike the half mile or so to the bike shop. The diagnosis was that I'd broken a spoke and, happily, the fix was quick and cheap. I phoned Scott, who was halfway to the shop, and told him I was good to ride back home. Since he was in my car, I didn't feel too guilty about his burning gas and toll road money for the wasted trip. He was concerned about the fading light, but I assured him I was okay with my blinky headlight and do-not-look-into-laser-with-remaining-eye tail light.

And I was okay. At least until I got out of Vienna proper when I realized that I'd left my water bottle at the service counter of the shop. Guh. Reston wasn't that far away and I could snag a bottle of water at the McD's next to the trail on Wiehle. I chased the fading light and was in full-on darkness as I approached Herndon. The ninja joggers and cyclists were out in force and I gave my bell a workout warning folks of my passing. I'm VERY happy not to have found any deer on the trail since my spotlight-the-next-county headlight was on the kitchen counter at home. I'm also VERY happy not to have hit the skunk which trundled out of the underbrush just before I got to Sterling Blvd. I don't think I've ever seen a live one in the wild and I'm glad that we passed each another without physical or aerosolized contact.

I thought that I'd be exhausted when I got home, but coasting for a mile or so revitalized me. I was tired and hurting because it's been a while since I've ridden over twenty miles, but I did manage a total of 24 miles in just over two hours, plus the twenty minutes or so of bike repair. And one of these days I'll get to complete a Bike Me DC ride with the whole group.

Comedy of errors

The weather promised to be beautiful and I had no directly-after-work obligations so today was the perfect day for this fair weather cyclist to commute. Unfortunately, those after work obligations and weekend laziness -- okay, I wasn't entirely lazy; I did clean the house, after all -- caused the MUCH-needed cleaning of my beloved Lily the Ariel to fall by the wayside. Her chain and sprockets are filthy and have been making terrible grindy noises for a while. At this point, I'm kind of afraid to ride her until I've given the chain and cassette some TLC. With those considerations, I rode Circe the Dolce to work.

This is the second time I've commuted by road bike and I find the departure preparation is more intense than the hybrid's. Mainly, Lily is outfitted with a basket and shopping pannier. I dump my purse in the basket and clothes bag in the pannier and hit the road. I typically check the tire pressure every few days or so because she's got a fairly wide pressure range and when I top off, I go to the top of the range. Not so with Circe. She has no basket and no rack. I had to  scrounge up the hub's backpack and stow my clothes in a plastic bag within the backpack -- he keeps some of his martial arts gear in there and it's kind of stinky -- and dump my purse necessaries into the pack. Where are my gloves? Where are my helmet and glasses? Yes, I wear a different helmet and glasses on the road bike. Oh! Tire pressure. Circe's a fickle beast and her narrow tire pressure range requires my checking every time I take her out. Yep, low again.

Is it just me, or does everyone work up a sweat using a little pump to inflate tires?

All right. Got all the gear. Got the bike outside and the front door locked. Ready for take off and I realize that I had taken off the front reflector so I could attach the handlebar bag. No worries, Virginia law states either a front reflector of a headlight and my little wo blinky is on the front fork... except it isn't. Drat! It must've fallen off in transport at some time. Good thing those lights are cheap. Back into the house to find the reflector... crap, where did I put it when I cleaned? After a fairly quick and unsuccessful search, I said screw it and decided to go with a headlight. I dug through the basket in the coat closet and found a suitable light. Good thing I checked to see if it worked, though, because it had no batteries. Good thing I have a stockpile of rechargeables in the kitchen drawer. It took another five minutes or so to actually attach the headlight to my surprisingly thick handlebar.

Is it just me, or does everyone work up a sweat when attaching a headlamp and discovering that they are now running pretty late for work?

After that, the commute itself was a snap aside from the rusted out pickup truck nearly running me down when he tried to make a U-turn at the opening of the neighborhood as I approached the stop sign. Oh, and the indecisive groundhogs who slithered across the W&OD trail and then couldn't decide whether to proceed or retreat as I approached at speed. Oh, and the cars passing me so closely on that last stretch of surface street before the campus that their side mirrors would have grazed me if I'd stuck out my elbow. At least the weather was nice and I was only two minutes late for the conference call.

Two unexpected sights

I was pouty that the space shuttle Discovery's final flight would happen too far east and south for me to see since my office campus is directly north of Dulles International Airport. As it turned out, we got a fly-by when Discovery reached Dulles airspace and flew over the airport before continuing to DC proper. After Discovery flew around DC, it did a final fly-by of Dulles and flew RIGHT OVER my building. Goosebumps.

If you squint, you can see Discovery's nose and tail.

And here I thought that the most exciting thing I'd see today was the tortoise that crossed the W&OD as I rode to work. The shuttle was cool, but I'm still pretty jazzed about the tortoise. It startled and hissed after I snapped the photo and I backed of quickly as it retreated into its shell. Didn't mean to disturb you, little guy.

It wasn't much bigger than my foot.

Social engagement

My friend Co. hosted a Lia Sophia party this afternoon (like Tupperware or Partylite, but jewelry) and I'd been going back and forth mentally on whether I'd drive or bike. As of this morning I was still pretty tired and sore from yesterday's excursion and, for the first time ever, I was not excited about the prospect of riding. The overpass bridges between my house in Sterling and hers in Reston are steep and I was afraid of the mile of playing in traffic I'd have to do between trail and her neighborhood. However, as I showered and dressed my enthusiasm perked back up and I felt jazzed by the challenge of trying something new.

My ensemble of heels, tights, skirt, tank, and bolero (I stowed my cardigan in my bag so it wouldn't be all sweaty) garnered a few stares along the route. I felt so prissy and girly with a bag in my basket and dinging my bell to alert pedestrians I was passing. The overpasses weren't nearly so tough today; probably because I was taking it nice and slow to keep the sweating to a minimum. The playing in traffic part of the trip wasn't nearly as scary as I'd feared it would be, either. Co. and everybody else in attendance at the party were amazed that I'd ridden my bike the 7.5 miles there, and in dressy clothes. Hee!

The first part of the ride home held a bit of excitement, mostly because I had forgotten the number of turn lanes to get onto the street that would take me to the trail and I wound up in the leftmost left turn lane. At the top of the lane, too, with cars stacked up next to me and behind me. Interestingly, I was faster off the line than the truck in the lane to my right. After making that turn and determining that the right lane was open, I signaled and moved over. The car that had patiently stayed behind me continued past at a polite and non-threatening speed. Bless.

The rest of the ride home was uneventful except for being startled by three does leaping across the trail just after I'd crossed the county line. Apparently I have a preferred expletive for deer crossings because it's the same word I used Thursday night.

Eek!

It was full dark again when I left work tonight but I felt little fear with my trusty head- and tail-lights and blinky lights and reflectors and near-fluorescent jacket. Rawr. Traffic was a breeze and I got an appreciative up-and-down look and smile from a cute guy in the SUV next to me at the stoplight. Oh yeah, the plaid skirt, red tights, and red heels got me a LOT more attention than jeans or lycra ever have. Heh.

Once on the trail, I tried not to let the feeling of isolation get to me. I've been able to follow another female cyclist most of the way to Pacific the last two nights, but she wasn't around tonight. I got a little mesmerized by the moon but quickly put my attention back on the trail and made myself not ride ahead of my light.

I'm so glad I remembered to do that since a ghostly, deer-shaped form appeared at the farthest reach of my illumination in one of the darkest parts of the trail. I dinged my bell a few times and the doe startled and jumped off the trail. Unfortunately, a second doe jumped onto the trail. I think my scream scared that one off.

I passed a couple of west-bound commuters further up the trail and hollered "deer ahead!" I didn't hear any screams or crashes, so I guess everyone got past the danger successfully.

There was one semi-casualty this evening, though. I hit a speed bump too fast in the neighborhood across the street and wound up ripping one of the rivets which holds my Basil Mirte's hooks. I heard a grinding crunching sound behind me and the bike shuddered and skidded. I thought I'd popped my rear tire. Nope. The poor, overloaded bag had shifted down and back and the corner was caught in my back spokes. I wasn't happy about that, but at least I didn't have to change a tire for the first time in the dark or walk my bike the quarter mile home. I limped over the other speed bumps (good lord, there are a lot of them in our neighborhood!) and got home without further incident. I should be able to put in a new rivet to fix my bag. I hope so anyway. In the meantime, I'll just use my Basil Shopper as my glove compartment/trunk.

Night riding

Tonight's commute was my first planned ride in the dark and it was pretty darn awesome (and safe, thanks to my new headlight and the nearly fluorescent jacket Scott got me). The sun was just setting as I left the campus and the trees at the corner of Waxpool and Smiths Switch were ablaze in shades of reds and oranges. I spotted three does grazing next to the trees. Thankfully, they left me alone and I returned the favor. Traffic wasn't any worse than any other day and I felt pretty comfortable while on the surface streets. I actually felt safer in the dark than I did in this morning's fog.

As soon as I hit the trail and was surrounded by trees, the temperature dropped noticeably. Interestingly, when I crossed the County Parkway overpass, the air temperature shot back up and then dropped again on the other side of the street.

I've never been on the trail at night and it was fun seeing the lit-up backyards of the houses along the trail. So pretty. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's commute and Wednesday's and maybe Thursday's (if it's not raining) and so on and so forth.

Muskrat love

Scott pulled out our bikes and made them safe for the road. We hit the trail yesterday and rode towards Ashburn. The air was thick with the perfume of honeysuckle along the trail. It was glorious! We came across a mama muskrat with two juvenile muskrats trying to cross the trail just before Loudoun County Parkway. Mama and kid #1 crossed the trail but kid #2 freaked out and dove back over to their originating side. We stopped on the LoCo overpass and watched Mama try to herd her babies many times as bikers and walkers zoomed past.

We continued on to Smith Switch Station and I mentioned that this would be where I'd dive off to go to the campus. The 'fink asked if I wanted to go to work and I said, "Sure!" Most of that road is closed to through traffic for some construction project and the ride up to the light at Waxpool/Farmwell was fairly safe. We even crossed Farmwell without issue and stayed in the far right lane as cars whizzed past on Waxpool. Finally there was a break in traffic and we were able to dive across the road for the left hand turn into the campus' back entrance. We hung out in the shade of the parking garage for several minutes as a breather and sweet respite from the blazing sun.

After the short break, we headed back out for the open road which was very busy all the way to the light. I've watched cyclists leave the campus on workdays and I knew which lane to stay in and where to stand at the light. We didn't have any problems and it felt like most of the ride back to the trail was downhill. Yay, coasting. Unfortunately, once we got back on the trail pretty much the entire ride back to route 28 is uphill. Our booties were sore, especially Scott since he doesn't have nearly the amount of natural padding that I do. I was able to peddle about halfway up the incline for the rte 28 overpass and then had to push my bike the rest of the way. Same thing for the last hill up Holborn. I should be strong enough to get up Holborn in a few weeks. 28 will probably be another month or so.

We collapsed in the yard with water and a banana (me) and a gatorade (him), very proud of and amazed with ourselves for our ten mile round trip on our first bike outing of the year. And the best part? I now know for a fact that I can fairly easily ride my bike to work. I'm going to start out one day a week and I'd like to get where I bike Monday and Friday, drive Tuesday and Thursday, and telecommute on Wednesdays. I'm practically salivating over the gas savings and how buff I'm going to get.

Oh, and Mama Muskrat was STILL trying to herd both babies across the trail when we crossed Loudoun County Parkway the second time.