The floor under my desk at work carries my work shoes
Brought em in once and left em so I don't have to haul them to and fro. I use the trusty old LL Bean backpack I've had since high school for commuting. Works well for me, as far as backpacks go. Still wanna get a trunk rack or some pannier sometime, but all in good time...
As for routes, there have been some good suggestions already. FWIW, if you're interested and since you say you're new to the area, I've taken a stab over the last several months of putting together a map of bike trails in the DC area. Easiest way to view it is as follows:
Open Google Maps and paste the URL maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104612096522479103192.0004634c82996a1d5537a&vps=1&jsv=177f&output=kml (may need to be preceded by h t t p : / /) directly into the search box. Then hit enter or click on Search Maps.
You should get a display of my map with all trails on one map and in one list. Furthermore it should be a functional map, so you can save it back to "My Maps" (provided you have and are signed into a Google account) - where it will be put in the "Created by Others" section. Then if you want to view the map in the future, you can select this map from your "Created by Others" list of maps and the most up-to-date version incorporating any changes that I may have made will be displayed.
There are also some good mash-up maps efforts out there that you might want to look for. Just another helpful way of seeing what's out there for planning your route.
Hope that helps! Good luck!