Adventures in Darkness
 

Many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are now experiencing quite a bit of darkness: where I live, we are now under 10 hours between sunrise and sunset.

So, tell us about your adventures in the dark! Are you still riding and walking? Where did you go - for transportation or for fun? Pictures of bikes in the dark are always welcome as well!

My Adventure in Darkness tonight was a short (9 mile) ride from work on some paved trails and through an industrial area, with a stop to pick up a few pounds of coffee for the household. I left work two hours after sunset, so it was good and dark. It was dry today and the temperature was right around freezing, so it was actually kind of a nice night to ride!

My town recently installed a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, making it easier to ride from one part of town to the other. I decided to stop for a photo:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4568/3...4af69517_c.jpg

Riding can definitely be easier after dark: less traffic and some traffic lights on blinking mode. If you have decent lights, visibility problems are lessened.

Crime is another issue. A lot of people feel less safe after dark. It doesn't bother me much, but my family is another story. The last two nights I set out to walk to work (after dark since DST ended a short time ago) and my son and DIL insisted on driving me because they think it's too dangerous to walk in our neighborhood at night.

I'm on third shift this week so I get up just about the time the sun is going down. I enjoy riding at night, and with good lights feel I'm more visible than in the day. I rode my bike today for the first time ( after dark) to vote......

I feel much much safer riding at night. Perhaps it's just psychological, but for me it seems that it's easier for drivers to see me (the Black Knight Bicycle is very well lit) and more importantly it's easier for me to see cars and gauge distances, especially in my mirror. I think the pic below is the only after-dark image I have though . . . My wife was worried whether I could see the road ahead so I put my lights on high and took the picture for her. I use different lights now but the effect is the same.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4i7dJhGGv...305_192028.jpg

I use that all the time since it's just about a mile and a half from me. Since I have no car it saves me a lot of time and mileage. In fact I will be using it on Friday to take a kitten I found on Halloween to the vet.
Later this month when they are supposed to finish all of the highway construction I heard there is going to be a straight shot down Rose St. to Onalaska which I wish was done now because it would cut a good mile and a half at least from my trip to the vet.
I used to do a walk over that bridge before it was officially dedicated and I carried a weighted metal cane that has 2 AA flashlights attached to it and a point at the end for walking on ice. I didn't need the cane but it was nice to carry in case I met up with a stray big dog or somebody who decided they could give an old duffer a hard time. I was right in the middle of the bridge when a big headlight was coming at me--a biker dude on a Harley. I stood in the middle to make him stop and told him he had to turn around. At first he said "no" but in the semi-dark he saw my cane and wasn't sure what it was and amazingly he turned his bike around which took a couple of moves to do it since he couldn't just do a u-turn. My thought when he left was relief and then how could I have been that stupid. Fortunately I never saw him again.

Crime can definitely be a concern - and for me, it was always even more reason to ride my bike! Back when I was fun, there were a couple of venues that I frequented for local rock shows. One was only four blocks away, but people had been getting mugged in my neighborhood, so I always rode there rather than walking. The other was about four miles away and in an even worse neighborhood, and I found it safer to ride and park right outside rather than walking alone several blocks back to a car.

I've had a few super sketchy encounters at night on my bike, but it's been easy enough to get away. I just pretend I'm being chased by farm dogs :)

I'm also a big fan of the bridge! It's definitely made it easier to get from my neighborhood up to Onalaska. I'm fine using the marsh trails and cutting through the industrial area this time of year. But in the summer, I like to avoid the trails during the day, because there's lots of people and it can be hard to navigate the trailer, and at night, because of all the lil' froggies and flying critters.

I got clocked by a bat one late summer evening riding through the marsh trail with a trailer of stuff from Home Depot. The bat flew straight into my chest and I had to go to Urgent Care to make sure I didn't need a rabies shot.

Yeah, I once outrode a guy trying to jack my bike at night. I bragged about it for a while because the guy was about 30 years younger than me, but nowhere near as fast! Sometimes I mentally rehearse how I would get away from somebody in a car--hop a curb, cut through a vacant lot, wrong way on a one-way, and so forth. Generally I feel safer than I did 10 or 20 years ago, since the street crime rates have gone down a lot most places.

That bridge is a "bridge" compared to the wooden ones that were train bridges. There's that one that's narrow and it seems like every time I'm about to go over it somebody is coming from the opposite direction and I have to wait.
I hate it when the marsh trails have all of the little frogs on them at night because I don't want to run over them.

There are really fewer bats here than there used to be. The neighborhood you live in used to have bats swooping all summer because there were so many big houses and tall trees and there would be night hawks as well. As a kid my house on the hill routinely would get bats in the house and my mother would be wearing my football helmet and swinging a broom at them, usually with little effect other than a broke lamp. There were once lots of old warehouses in the downtown area and old buildings there where the bats would roost that there would commonly be bats swooping on Main St. at night. Occasionally I might see a bat now on the marsh trails, but not often.

Unless somebody has a gun or there's more than one of them, I don't worry about it. I'm not going to out-run or out-maneuver anyone but I do have a 2 foot end of a rake handle with a bike handlebar grip on the end attached to the top bar of my bike and painted to match it. I may not escape scratch-free but whoever tries to attack me will long regret it.
Out on the fringes of the city I'm more worried about running into a big, loose dog more than people anyways.

Though not from this year, but rather last fall before the snow fell, I've been mistaken for a mobility scooter and, moments before that, apparently a person ( all I heard was, "<name>, go home. Oh... It's a scooter."). On another ride, I encountered the local jogging club. After ringing my bell to announce my presence, several members burst into song... "I Want To Ride My Bike"

I rode over the bridge late this afternoon but it wasn't dark yet. I took the bike lane along Rose St. to take the kitten to the vet by the DQ because I didn't know how she would take the ride but she was great and didn't make a peep. It's not finished yet but near the start by KFC there was a DOT truck and I asked them if it went all the way through to Onalaska so I could go to the vet. The guy said yes, but you didn't hear it from me. It's not finished at the intersections to getting on or off the Interstate or going down to Nutbush, but I was able to get across. There is a wide bike lane/walkway on both sides of the bridge over the railroad tracks (I think both sides) and a 3 foot concrete wall separates it from the highway. It's a nice, safe way to ride but I'm sure some cyclists will demand they have the right to ride on the highway itself. It's a straight shot for me though going to Onalaska and took maybe a mile and a half off my trip to the vet.
I did come back the long way over the bridge though because at the start of the bike lane by KFC there was nothing there that said it was closed or not open yet but when I got to the other side of the bridge there was a ribbon across the trail so legitimately I could not claim I didn't know the bike lane wasn't open yet. Besides, the kitten was such a champ that taking her back the long way made no difference to her.
(I see in your photo there is a train coming towards you. There must be 7 or 8 tracks there under the bridge.)

can I share an adventure I want to have? bout 5 yrs ago got the idea to take the last ferry to the vineyard & ride till sunrise then nap on the beach. still haven't done it

I live on a rural road with no lights and a 45mph speed limit. It has a really wide paved shoulder, so I usually ride on it. But today the shoulder was covered in snow, and it was very windy. So, I was riding on the road.

Maybe I should have taken the principal position, but it was dark (the picture is from the beginning of the ride before it went pitch black), and cars drive really fast on this road, and I was worried they might not see me and rear end me. So, I was riding near the shoulder, and a few cars passed really close to me.

+1, always feel safest when traveling by bike.

Back when our national murder and violent crime rates were much higher, I was young enough to still be immortal, so I was unconcerned. My city has seen a six-fold increase in homicides over the past four years and our bike paths have been taken over by thugs. I miss being young enough to not be bothered by these things.

On the bright side, the thug who tried to mug my son and then a few weeks later attempted to bike-jack my wife and me on the bike path a block from our home just got arrested for two counts of armed robbery. I guess it's kind of pathetic that that's what I call good news these days, but it is. My city has lost 30% of its walkers, 43% of its cyclists and 50% of its bus riders according to the US Census American Community Survey, so good news on the cycling front is hard to come by.

It's getting dark before 5 p.m. here this time of year. I don't mind cycling in the dark, I do mind not cycling in daylight. I need my half hour exposure to daylight every day, and it's difficult to get that on my commute/grocery shopping this time of year.

Could you plan some meeting or other work activity outside during the day? Or take your lunch break outside. I sometimes eat while walking or biking. I used to think it was bad for digestion, but if I am riding/walking at an easy pace, I think my stomach can work fine while my legs are moving.

I never use a light. I am crazy.

I do most of my riding on the sidewalk.

I can bike in complete darkness. I don't know how either.

I ride on the sidewalk (perfectly legal in my city) if the street has a lot of traffic and I rarely encounter pedestrians.
I use a light at night for a very good reason other than helping me to see and be seen: It's the law, even on the sidewalks.

Tonight's night ride was a bit of an experiment.

My dad died three years ago today (and honestly, I would not have remembered the date except that my mom has brought it up every time we've talked for the last two months.) Dad was usually pretty low key, but had this crazy self-sufficient tough guy streak - he had been a Green Beret. I picked it up.

So as a memorial I decided to do something that seemed kind of crazy and tough to me, and took my single speed up a hill in the dark after work. Nothing too crazy - the road had a wide shoulder, and I use lights/reflective equipment but assume that the vehicles cannot see me. It was not as scary as I thought, and once the traffic quit...amazing. Definitely worth doing again.

I'm sorry to hear about your dad, that's still pretty recent for you. Unless such a date happens to coincide with a birthday or holiday, or unless somebody reminds you, in time it tends to slip away from memory. My dad died 47 years ago, the second month of my freshman year at college. He was a 100% disabled vet from WWII and so I went to college on the GI Bill because of that.

What hill did you go on? I would venture a guess after you posted a picture of the bridge because it's otherwise so flat here in the city. If that's the hill it is not a huge one but a tough one on a single speed bike and it's a nice coast down though.

I ride by police all the time. Maybe nobody sees me. Maybe I am not alive?

This was in September. Had a long mileage day while touring across Pennsylvania. Left camp and after a few miles got on the Lehigh Gorge Trail in White Haven. Very spooky. Shortly before I shot this I saw coming towards me on the trail. Thought it was a skunk but I turned out to be a huge porcupine. Wish I had been able to get my camera out in time.


A few days earlier, I was camping after a hard day of riding. Heard some chattering in the trees and turned on my headlamp.

I don't think you're crazy. Lots of people don't use lights. Maybe they can't afford them, or they think they're a hassle, or they just don't like them. I didn't use lights for a long time after I started riding, and I did just fine.

Now I use them and like them. I feel lucky to be living when they're cheap and easy to use--unlike just a few years ago, before LEDs came along. I even think modern lights are fun and they look cool, but TEHO.