Day 18 of 30: The Lengths

Happy Saturday, everyone and happy day 18 of 30 Days of Biking. I have a little "extra" time today, as if that's a thing, so I thought I'd make good on my promise from a few days ago to share what I p̶u̶t̶ ̶m̶y̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ enjoy every morning getting to work via bike and bus.

It's a route that I've spent some time figuring out for best efficiency and safety (you can only rely on GoogleMaps so much). That's always part of the fun of cycling in a new place: finding the best routes to your regular destinations. I won't lie and tell you that I looked forward to my first few bike commutes when we moved to Grove City, but that's certainly changed. I've done it 11 times alone this month, but who's counting anyway?

At this time of year, I'm usually on the road and waiting to board the bus before sunrise:

My closest stop is just about a half mile from the house. I'm ever so thankful for the Transit app, which will actually give real time bus locations and arrival times. It gives me a tiny bit of peace of mind when I'm rushing out the door to know that I haven't missed the bus, which would set me back by at least a half hour (or not at all if I decided to brave riding the whole way, an option I really don't like for safety reasons).

I've come to appreciate this part of the commute. I can usually read some emails, play a game, or do the social media-ing for a bit. A bit of passive commuting before some very active commuting. After a quick 3ish mile bus ride, I hop off near the intersection of two very busy roads, Harrisburg Pike and Central Avenue:

Interesting coincidence that I'm on Harrisburg Pike every day, and Harrisburg happens to be the capital of my home state of Pennsylvania. My brain goes places sometimes. Anywho...I'm only near these super busy roads for maybe a 10th of a mile. I usually ride the sidewalk or parking lot to the traffic light you can see off in the distance, and then take the crosswalk across 5 lanes of Central Ave. It may not seem like a big deal, but sometimes I'm waiting 2 minutes at this crosswalk:

After that tiny adventure, I'm in mostly residential areas for the next portion of the ride. There's one small stretch on sharrow-labeled Sullivant Avenue that can be a little nerve-racking, but usually it's not too bad at this time of day:

I usually pass a guy on a bike going the opposite direction on this stretch. We'll wave when we see each other. It's kinda cool. Like we're in this thing together, or something.

Moving on, after an abbreviated time on Sullivant, I turn right and head through more residential neighborhoods:

This takes me up to Broad Street, which is also quite busy, but it does have bike lanes on some stretches:

I'm literally on this street for one block. This pic is taken from exactly where I turn left onto Broad, and you can see the traffic light where my right turn is off in the distance. I've been up and down this street before though, as part of finding my favourite daily route. It's not the worst bike lane in history, but also certainly not the best. If I could offer a comparison for my Philly cycling friends, think Columbus Boulevard/Delaware Ave. So thankfully, I'm off to the side pretty quickly, where my route starts to venture onto trails:

Almost looks like something out of Jurassic Park. I'm still not sure exactly what park this is or if it's even a park, but in any case, it's a short trail that sometimes provides nice morning views over the meadow to the right:

The trail then plunges into a small wooded area:

Which then curves into a boardwalk area traversing a swamp:

This area is also a bit unnerving at times, especially when it's dark and/or rainy. One small slip in the wrong direction, and I'd end up in the drink:

But, as you can see above, there are guardrails for the final stretch, which passes by a creek that often looks much nicer than it did on this gray Friday morning:

This trail finally opens up to grassy fields in Holton Park:

I then make one final right turn and briefly hop on the Ohio to Erie Trail, but in a weird twist, this section is all on road:

Our shop is about a half mile from there, across some train tracks, which are only treacherous if it's been raining. It's tough to see in any of the pics above, but it was actually lightly snowing when I took all of these photos yesterday morning:

Happy Spring. Yeah right. We did warm up a bit through the day, which means the snow eventually turned to some pretty fierce rain. I really don't mind rain that much compared to my arch nemesis wind. At least I finally got to break in my rain-proof pannier!

Finally, I got one last pic at the end of the ride home while the bus was waiting to keep itself on schedule, just in case you've never seen a bike on a bus:

So those are the lengths I go to every day that I decide to ride to and from work. Yes, it might take a little longer, but overall it's helped me feel more energized recently, and sometimes more productive depending on what I accomplish on the bus ride. I also realize this isn't for everyone, and once again, I'm just grateful to still have a commute right now. My job won't really allow a guy in my position to work from home, and it's a blessing that we're even open for business right now.

Enough about work. It's Saturday, and it looks like we might actually have some nice weather in the forecast. I might go do something on a bike. We'll see. Whatever you do, enjoy your day and be as safe as humanly possible.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 169.7