Commuting - My first ride to work

Today I made the ride, thirteen miles of bike trail to the next town where I work. Its a rail trail, so its pretty flat. The first five miles are asphalt and the rest is crushed limestone. I made the trek in 1 hour 6 minutes, exactly 13 miles. Not bad for the first day on a mountain bike. I saw 3 deer, 1 skunk and more rabbits than I cared to count.

Cool! Congrats!

Crushed limestone, is it packed down pretty well? There's loose gravel on one part of my ride and if you can average 13 mph over something like that you're a better man than I.

yeah, its pretty solid, there were a few soft spots from the recent rain but overall its not too hard to ride on.

steer clear of the skunks.

great job on the commute. keep it up.

Nice going! Sounds like a great ride. I have 12 miles, but with all the stoplights and city traffic, it takes me 1hr 20mins or thereabouts.

Thats not the first time I've seen skunks on that trail, I hope I don't ever scare one too bad. At night there are a lot of raccoons running down the trail also.

:beer:

Sweet! That sounds like a great ride. Just curious, what kind of tires are you using?

My commute is 13+ on city streets...yesterday I made record time - 44 minutes riding time (19mph ave), add about 3 or 4 minutes for total time. Today I start work late, so I took the dog over to the nearby forest preserve this morning and within seconds of being in the woods about 5 deer take off....good thing the dog was on a leash or I'd still be chasing her.

Congrats!! That's a fair distance for a new commuter.

Good job and welcome to the club. You're doing better than my first ride. I did just shy of 12 miles in 1 hour 20 min. the first time out on the rail trail I use. Now I've got it down to 50-55 minutes after only a few months. So with a more rides you'll probably see that time shrink.

There is something so cool about spotting wildlife as you roll along. I've seen lots of deer, ducks, geese, mice, a woodchuck and a fox but no racoons or skunks thankfully. I found myself amazed at how much more you notice everything leafing out and blooming as spring came on compared to when you are in a car.

Enjoy the commute and let us know how its going.

There is something so cool about spotting wildlife as you roll along. I've seen lots of deer, ducks, geese, mice, a woodchuck and a fox but no racoons or skunks thankfully. I found myself amazed at how much more you notice everything leafing out and blooming as spring came on compared to when you are in a car.
Absolutely!! I've seen snakes, foxes, geese, turtles, woodchucks, deer, and all manner of birds. Until I started cycling to work, I didn't believe there was any wildlife left in the DC suburbs ;)