commuting... quickly

Lately, I've been reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and was doing so this morning. For too long, it turns out. I got to the end of a chapter, glanced at my watch, and realized that I was going to be late.

So I pushed it on my bike, taking the quick (literally) and dirty (also literally) route down the Mud Creek ravine and then along Bayview. Deciding on the route reminded me of the scene in LOTR when they decided to take the 'short cut' through Moria. The ravine is trivial stuff for a mountain bike, but I don't have a mountain bike and I've only been commuting for about a week. What's more, it's a long way to drag a bike with a broken wrist or banged-up knee. The Bayview stretch is not without its own hazards, which pertain to the glass shards that are liberally strewn about the shoulder, and the many cars hurtling by at 120kph.

But I made excellent time, telling myself to take it easy (that being late for work was better than blowing a tire or taking a tumble and really being late for work). I arrived at the office some 30-32 minutes after I'd locked up the front door to the apartment.

It wasn't entirely without its adventures, though. A lot of people walk their dogs on that ravine trail in the mornings. At a point when I was thundering along at a good clip, I had to suddenly come to a crunching halt when one of them darted in front of me. I wound up in deep, soft semi-dry mud in the ditch (well, sort-of ditch), but we both survived unscathed.