Five days a week is my optimistic goal..often thwarted by nature and cargo. Winter weather in Ohio can make it difficult to impossible to get to work on time. The first 10 miles of my ride is on a beautiful bike path atop the flood levee for the Great Miami River. Upon arrival in the bowels of Dayton I switch to crowded surface streets for the remainder of the ride out to Wright State University. Sunrise along the river can be incredible, especially in the autumn. A few inches of surface fog often covers the river and bottom land. When the sun breaks the horizon there is a group of vultures on the bike path with wings fully extended to catch the warming rays of the sun. A little farther along, swans stretch with their necks rising from the fog, bathed in the pink light of sunrise. Passing the swans, white tail deer stand in the fog and tall grass of the bottom land. Geese, heron, egret, grebes, scudder, and all sorts of ducks and other seasonal waterfowl crowd in the water along the bank near Carillon Park where the enormous bells of the carillon tower ring. During the summer, red fox, rabbits, ground hogs and geese wander the path in front of my bicycle. Riding along the surface streets is always the same... tense (but I do have some challenging hills to work out the tension). The ride home is a little a different route with some mileage through wooded hills on single track (did I mention.. I ride MTB's on my commute), only a couple of miles of road and 13 miles of river levee.
Transplanted to Ohio from southern Utah.. I thought I moved to HELL until I started riding the river bike paths. Then I realized I only moved to the perimeter of HELL. The parks district working with Rail Trails and other conservation orgs have helped make the perimeter a rather nice place. And now my trips back to the slick rock and single track of the desert are much more heavenly.