The Joy of Commuting

Perhaps I haven't mentioned this here before, but I'm not the biggest fan of Daylight Saving Time. It throws me out of whack for a few weeks a year, among many other annoyances. And since I moved and started a new job with an earlier schedule, it's made commuting via bicycle a much more dangerous, arduous task.

It's not supposed to be like this. For those of you who know me, I'm at my best mentally and physically when I'm doing nearly everything on a bike. I've basically been forced to cut out commuting from that equation for the last couple months due to morning darkness on an un-lit section of the Scioto Trail that comprises about 1/4 of my ride to and from work. Of course, it doesn't look so bad during the day:

But at 6:15AM, even with a proper bike light, the tree cover on a moonless morning severely impairs your field of vision. This particular stretch of trail is also flanked by the Scioto River and one of its tributaries, with a rather steep drop on either side. Certainly not the place you'd accidentally want to run over a wayward squirrel, tree branch, or other obstruction. I did the ride a couple times in late September and even I was pretty terrified.

So, you can imagine how happy I was that Daylight Saving Time came to an end last weekend, and I'd be given some "extra" daylight to utilize in the morning. Unfortunately more heavy rains forecast for Monday and Tuesday mornings delayed my return to bicycle commuting until today. Better late than never, I rolled out bright and early at 5:45AM:

Pro tip: it's very important to select a coffee mug that fits in your bottle cage. Anyway, it was still dusk, so the lights were still in order:

Maybe it was because I'd waited more than a month between bike commutes, maybe it was the light Fall chill in the air, or maybe it was the smell of the leaves; whatever it was, today just seemed extra gorgeous, as seen first from the apex of the trail bridge over the Scioto River:

And once again on the return ride this afternoon:

My girlfriend actually told me today smelled good, and then asked if I thought that was weird. It's totally not weird if I agreed, right? I don't know what else to say except it felt good, like everything was returning to normal. I mean, gotta feel good about putting in 8 miles before 7AM, right?

So good riddance, Daylight Saving Time. I won't miss you. I also won't miss out on getting in as many of these commutes as I can before the shortest days of the year coming up in a few weeks, if you can believe it...