Down but not Out

I fell down while bike commuting home about a week ago. I'm sure many of the skeptics at work and elsewhere had a moment of satisfaction-"You do something crazy (by local standards) and that's what you get". Here's how it happened:
I'm heading north on Campbell Road, it's dark, and I'm beyond the streetlights of Valparaiso. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I get to this point in the ride. I've got one more tricky section-a left turn from Campbell Road on to 550 North. I say tricky because I pull off to the right and slow down to check behind me rather than get out into the northbound traffic. I'm not too confident that oncoming cars will stop for me if I'm out in the northbound lane. There's lots of traffic in both directions this night. When I look at the oncoming car it takes a moment to refocus on the dark pavement below me when I look down to see where I am. My headlight is pretty useless in these conditions-it's meant to illuminate the road in front of me not below me. Well as I'm easing to the right I guess I eased a little too far and went completely off the road. In some spots this would not be too big a deal but there's maybe a 4-6 inch drop where I am. Oh, and when I feel myself going off the road, I jam on the front brakes! You guessed it, over the handlebars I go. I wind up mostly off the road, twisted around and my feet still in my toeclips! I get up quickly and move completely off the road. My left calf muscle has knotted up and is now a throbbing ball about four inches below my knee. Apparently the fall has aggravated an Achilles injury I have been struggling with for a couple of months. At the moment I only want to remount my bike and get across the road to the county road on the other side. I can't swing my leg over the bike (I'm a left footed swinger) so I'm compelled to lay the bike almost sideways to get my foot over the bar. Once I do this I am still obliged to wait for traffic to clear. It seems like I've never seen this much traffic at this location. I eventually make it across the road. The first pedal strokes do nothing but confirm that I've done some damage to myself, but the bike seems okay. A week later, I can cycle comfortably but my running is still a problem. I'm working on another route home so I can cut out this turn (I'll go west at the light a mile south of this turn) and I've been looking at new lighting.

Merry Christmas

It's a gray snow less Christmas Day. We've really not had any snow worth talking about yet, however, we continue to get regular periods of fairly heavy (for around here anyway) rain. I decided to post a photo I took a couple of days ago at the dunes. You can see Dunes Creek in the center of the picture. The water was gushing out into the lake from our latest rains. The road from my house (Waverly Road and State Park Road) to the state park was flooded in a couple of spots. Dunes Creek drains all of the marshy areas south of the beach including the areas along these roads.

Odds and Ends

Here's my commuter bike up on the rack for routine maintenance. I found the plans for the homemade bike stand at Blue Collar Mountain Biking. I've added seven more round trips since I last posted. That's another 175 miles. The total so far is 1325 miles. The cold weather is going to limit the number of commutes I make. There are a group of crazies who populate the ICEBIKE web site who commute year round in some really severe conditions. That's not me, yet!

The second deer cull is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday (12/4 & 12/5). Hunters killed around 60 deer during the first round. Heavy rains over the past couple of weeks have flooded some of the trails at the Dunes State Park. John, a running acquaintance of mine, says that according to the park rangers the flooding is due to the beavers. I hope they don't decide to cull the beavers next.

Speaking of the dunes, the new visitor center for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore opened last week.

The major snows west of here missed us completely. I bought a pair of Redfeather snowshoes from eBay after a freak lake effect snowfall of about 17" a couple of years ago. I have gotten several days of snowshoeing in each winter since then. It's a great way to see the dunes when the snow is deep and really is a workout. For years the spokesperson for Redfeather was a guy named Tom Sobel, who grew up around here and later moved to Colorado. Tom once measured the ZOY! Run course by bike. If you know anything about that race, you can appreciate this feat.

Deer cull at the state park

After a one year pause, hunters will return to the Dunes State Park to thin the deer herd this fall. I can tell that the herd has already been thinned. I rarely see more than two or three deer while running in the park. Several years ago I routinely saw 12 or more on the same trails. Of course as the areas around the parks become more developed, more deer are likely to migrate to the park as a source of food and cover. For the hunters it's kind of like shooting fish in a bucket!


NWI Times article

Bike Commuting #4

The price of gas is down to $2.03 at the local cheap station-just in time for the elections! Twelve more round trips to report-another 300 miles and another $20.30 saved. Totals so far:

$116.30 Saved
1150 miles

Last Friday when I rode to work, the temperatures were in the 30's. I'm going to have to seriously rethink my bike clothes for the colder months.

Invasion of the Insects

The Emerald Ash Borer has been found in Westchester Township.

Bike Commuting #3

Eleven more round trips! Another 275 miles of biking.

Totals so far:

$96.00 Saved
850 miles

Gas has dropped to about $2.43 a gallon. It may take a bit longer to "pay off" the bike. I attached my Planet Bike Freddy Fenders in anticipation of wetter commuting. I also purshased a set of panniers so I won't have to keep bungie-cording a gym bag to the rear rack. Onward!

By the way, according to the calculator I found on the Bicycle Garage Indy site, 566 pounds of CO2 have not been released into the atmosphere by my car because of those 850 bike miles.