The Commute in Winter
 

Just got my digital camera (a Canon a70) and some of the 1st pictures I have taken were of my commute today. Not super familiar with the camera's settings and such so I'm sure my pics will get better as I use it more. Anyway here is a pictorial view of my daily commute. Perhaps in a few months I'll post a summer version to compare and contrast :)

Pulling out of the park right at the beginning of my commute.

Heading out on the Sammamish River Trail:

Heading past some farmers fields:

Coming up on the Redhook Brewery

The other side of the trial opposite of Redhook. That steep trail going up goes to the Tolt Pipeline trail, which is a dirt trail, very hilly but good for MTB action.

Another view of Redhook:

That's a lot of Kegs:

Finally past the Brewery :D but looking back towards that area. The building up front is the famous Herb Farm restaurant.

The trail up past the brewery, all farmers feilds on both sides. They grow sod here:

Looking back toward one of the wineries, (Chateau St. Michelle I think) you can see the sod fields, and the nice partially sunny day:

Here is the construction that has closed the trail for me in the past. They are putting in a new bridge here so that 124th can become a 4 lane road. Often one has to dismount and walk through this section with an escort.

Off the trail and onto the roads. Good bike lanes on all the roads into work.

Now on to Willows road:

Just up this hill is the office complex I work at. A steep hill (and even steeper if I take the back route which I usually do) to end the ride. Today my rear tire went flat right before I took this picture. I just walked it up the hill though so I could change it indoors at my leisure.

So there it is, my commute in winter. A nice easy 5.5 miles each way on mostly flat trail land. The trail becomes pretty obnoxious in the summer and I usually take advantage of our long evenings to skip riding on it and take a real ride home. Still it is nice to have a quick a direct path in to work. The ride in the morning is always tougher for me (I am not a morning person) and I appreciate having a fast easy ride in. As I am in a valley there is plenty of nice hilly options for the ride home. :)

great pics. but wheres all the trucks & cars ?

I'd have to stop at the brewery along the way - for hydration of course.

What, no snow? Those pics look like my spring and fall commute. Must be nice.

Looks like summer without the leaves. We still have about a foot of snow on the ground, our grass doesn't usually turn that nice green until late April. Nice pics Kodama!

Great pics, thanks for posting.

Now that's what I call beautiful! That river trail is nothing like the commuting paths we have in Atlanta--I like the way it seemingly has no intersections (or dog-walkers.) It almost looks like a country road.

:)

(You sure have a lot of Redhook brewery pics in there! What's up with that? ;) )

I have to aggree with pyze-guy, it looks like my fall/spring commute too. I could really get into this over what I've got to deal with. Very nice.

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm not a photography buff and with a new camera I was happy to have the pics come out decent. No claim for high art orfcourse, just representative I hope :)

Of course there are no cars on the MUP which is 4 out of my 5.5 miles, but I also am fortunate enough to be able to work 10-7(or later), which cuts down the traffic dramatically. From 5-7 in the evening there can be backups of over a mile on Willows rd (last two pics)

I keep thinking I'll do that but even on rec rides I never do. Redhook (or Budhook as the local beer snobs refer to it) is not my favorite of the local Microbrews. They do have the Blackhook on nitro though, which is tasty.

Well that is the glory of the Puget sound region of Washington State. We are about the same latitude of New England but with the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges we just don't get the crazy cold temps and snow. Lots of rain, but it usually is like all day drizzle, never the torrential rains of the East (or South West for that matter) There are the occasional weeks of snow but not in the last decade. This winter we had about 4 days of snow. But Portland to the South and Bellingham to the North get far more. Also winter is kind of over, I really should have taken these in late December early January to really capture the season. But I didn't get the camera until last week -- putting my tax return to work :D

This part of the trail is really nice that way. There is only one over the street intersection (which I have just gone over in the 3rd from the last pic) the rest are under the trail. However if you head West toward Seattle, the trail becomes the Burke Gillman Trail and there are sections where people who live on the water front have basically private roads that cross the trail. These are super frequent and they have the right of way!

As for dog walkers, they are out in force. I tried not to take pictures of other people as it always bothers me to be in others random pictures. During the winter commute they were usually the only people I'd see out. In the summer it is plagued by dog walkers, joggers, roller bladders, cyclists etc. This time of year and late fall really are the glory days.

mmmm Beer

:beer:

I took a self guided tour of Belgium's breweries and ancient underground purveyors of the craft. This trip was quite enjoyable.

Possibly you could arrange a tour of you're area for us forumites, where we sample each of the fine beers, from the other breweries. As a nurse it will be tricky to convince my wife that I have to go on this business trip, but I'll manage!