Narrow Detour

The American River Bikeway has been closed near Northrop for more than a month now. I had to give it some time before I blogged about it, because I was so annoyed when the barricades first went up.

There was plenty of noticed--signs noting the coming closure and dates were posted more than a week ahead of time. I appreciated that. The implication was that a detour would be provided. Whoever designed the detour didn't study traffic patterns at this location very carefully.

The site of the closure is an access point for the trail, where trail users can get onto the street system and the reverse. The detour allows trail users to pass through but not to leave the trail and get back onto the street. It effectively closes Northrop--an important bike route--to users of the bike trail. My commute, with its good pavement, light traffic, and effective bike lane (read: no on-street parking) has been closed to me since August 22 and will remain closed until October 17.

In the meantime, I have been forced off of the bikeway at CalExpo, onto an after-thought spur trail of broken pavement and broken glass. This spur puts me into the RV entrance for the California State Fairgrounds, near the corner of Ethan Way and Hurley.

From the Fairgrounds, I turn onto Hurley. Hurley, here, assails me with yet more broken pavement and a constant stream of traffic that still thinks it is on a freeway. At the next intersection, a traffic signal at Howe Avenue, two lanes of traffic turn left. Each day, I take the middle lane on my bicycle so that two lanes of traffic aren't turning left in front of me. Each afternoon, I defy automotive-altercation while crossing two lanes of busy traffic with the rising sun in my eyes. In the afternoons, I do the reverse. 

All this, from what I can tell, is so that the contractor working on the leveee does not have to provide bicycles with access at Northrop. There is no work going on at the Northrop access--just access. Contractors' vehicles come and go through this gate during the workday. The amount of temporary fencing that was used to block off the bike trail could have been used to make a temporary bike access around the contractors' work area. 

In a few weeks, I should have my quiet, tree-lined commute back. In the meantime, I will practice riding my bike in real traffic.

Home Improvement by Bicycle

So I have this ancient little house. My partner and I purchased it a few years ago. It was built in 1893--so it survived the 1906 'quake and presumably can survive another one hundred years with proper care. Unfortunately, the last owner didn't have the means to care for it properly... so everything is broken.

Up until last week, that included the front porch. The steps were sagging and the deck was a little skew-ha.  No big deal, right? Just grab some 2x6's and set it to right. Well, understand that I am both interested in exploring responsible alternatives to old-growth redwood and also that I do not own a car to transport lumber with.

I ordered the necessary amount of composite lumber made from recycled plastic bags and wood waste through my local lumber yard. On the day it arrived, I gingerly rolled down there with my Bikes-At-Work 96A trailer. "I'll just toss this on the back and stop at the gym on the way home," I thought. 

So there I was, at the gym, after the lumber yard guy loaded my trailer with a forklift. The boards came in 12' lengths--which really is the max for an 8' trailer! In addition, the boards turned out to weigh something like fifty pounds each. That was one heavy trailer. As you can see in the photo above, I had to choose between blocking the sidewalk and blocking the accessible parking at the gym.  

I made it home, though, and it was an adventure. Now I have a front porch that is at least decked with recycled plastic. The railing is made from recycled lumber that I either pulled out of the old porch or bought at the Urban Ore Ecopark. There's a lot of sweat in that porch--but none of the materials were transported under gasoline-power after they left the lumber yard!

In the future, I expect that we will continue to use combustion-engined trucks to deliver bulk materials to cities like mine. In that same future, though, I expect that adventures like mine will need to become more commonplace.

Three hundred pounds on the BAW trailer is heavy, but the bike is geared low. The heavy weight just means that we roll slower. Rolling slower, though, still means rolling at like three times the speed of walking! Yay bikes!

Round and Round and Round!

I've been out travelling for work a good chunk of the summer so far, but now I'm back to going back and forth on Amtrak and riding my bike all over Sacramento and Oakland/Berkeley.  It's kind of nice, actually. 

Last week, I got on the train and sat down.  It had been a long time since I had just sat in one place for almost two hours with nothing more to do than look out the window.  Okay--well I'd done that on planes, but it's not the same.  Here, I wasn't THINKING of anything but looking out the window--I wasn't crammed into a little corner of an economy airline seat. 

Cycling in Sacto has been nice--not too hot this week.  My new schedule has me in Oakland a few more days a week which means about one good hill-climb per week. 

Two weeks ago, I rode up into the Oakland Hills, down to Orinda, up to El Sobrante, and then back home... a nice thirty mile loop with a solid climb in the middle. 

In the coming months, I plan to start setting myself up to do some weekend bike tours this winter.  Stay tuned.

Such a beautiful day and I'm not on my bike! Begone, illness!

The Best tool for the Job?

I often tell people that the best tool for a job is one which was made to do the job. That is, most multi-tools are pretty mediocre at most things that they can do, though there may be many things that they can do.

Today, though, I was very grateful for one of my multi-tools.

My daily commuter, my Schwinn Tempo, is currently outfitted with M324 pedals from Shimano. These are true multi-tools--SPD clipless on one side, platform pedal on the other. 

It's raining, today, and I'm completely decked out in rain gear.  This morning, I went to look for my shoes... no clipless shoes.  Well.  I found my Keen sandals with the SPD cleats on them. I wasn't about to go out in the rain wearing sandals.

I was out of town all weekend. I left from my home in Oakland and got dropped off at my apartment in Sacramento. So. I'm missing one bicycle. I had to borrow a helmet to ride to work in. And no shoes.

Fortunately, these pedals did all right. I found myself fiddling to get the SPD side down once or twice, but it sure beat pushing against egg-beaters with my sneakers.

Hooray for multi-tools when they save the day, but I am still glad that I own five different hammers.

The Posey Tube

I spend about half of my time in the Oakland area and half in the Sacramento area.  The fact that I mostly blog about Sacramento should speak more to my access to the internet in Sacto than about the amount of cycling I do in Oakland. Thinking of this, I took a couple of photos after experiencing the Posey Tube, yet again, on Saturday.

So the Posey Tube, for those of you who aren't familiar with Oakland, is a ceramic-tiled concrete tunnel that runs under the Oakland Estuary and onto the island of Alameda. I usually ride across the Park Street Bridge to go to Alameda Bicycle shop, in Alameda. On Saturday, I decided to return to Oakland via the Tube. 

I usually don't ride the Tube because it is strictly unpleasent. About three times a year, though, I do it just to remind myself of how much nicer it is to ride my bike down the pot-hole-littered freeway-feeder streets of Jingletown.

The accessway in the Tube is legal bike access.

As you cans see, though, it is narrow and shielded from the rush of traffic by a metal railing. Maybe from the picture you can get an idea of what a ridiculous experience it is for two cyclists travelling in opposite directions to pass one another at the bottom of the tunnel. I won't even discuss the issues that arise when trying to pass someone pushing a shopping cart through the Tube. 

The Tube dives deep under the Estuary, to allow ocean-going ships to pass overhead. One can pick up a bit of speed rushing down into the bowels of the earth, only to have to crank back up the other side. All the while, the cyclist must avoid whacking the uneven metal railing, less than three feet from the wall. 

When two cyclists meet, one must put his bike onto the rail so that the other may pass. The cyclist on the wall side actually has the worse lot. I have hardly mentioned the wall, have I? 

The wall is concrete, covered with ceramic subway tile. I expect that the wall hasn't been power-washed in twenty years. Thousands of motorists drive through the tunnel every day. All of that exhaust has to go somewhere. When I finished passing my fellow cyclist, my right arm was as black as coal. I barely brushed against that wall, but that soot is thick. I strongly recommend against touching the walls in the Tube.

My real advice, just avoid riding the Tube. The metal grating on the Park Street Bridge is much nicer. 

Latest news from the Sacramento Bikeways

This is the time of year that I recall how beautiful a place Sacramento can be to live and cycle in.  The sun is out now, late enough that I can ride without lights after work.  The winds are generally light and temperatures are mild.  I know that in a few months, I will miss these conditions, but they'll be back in the fall.  Two out of the four seasons here are superb for cycling.  That being said, winter is pretty tolerable if you have lights and summer is okay if you don't mind being hot!

Since I've been riding this commute for more than nine months now, I have been making some adjustments to my collection of bicycles.

If you've been following me, you've doubtless already seen a photo or two of my new ride.  It's a 2010 Globe Vienna 4, which was quickly dubbed, "the Blue Ox," by one of my roommates.  I haven't blogged about it until now because we were still getting to know one another!

I picked up this bicycle to improve my ability to carry larger cargo.  In this photo, I have my laptop case on the front basket and panniers on the rear.  As I do more telecommuting, I spend more and more time in transit with my laptop.  Right now, it's no big deal to put it into a messenger bag.  In mid-summer, though, I will be glad that I can put it on the basket and keep my back well-ventilated.

The racks aren't stock.  Both are made by Civia Cycles.  They are turning out to have been an excellent investment.  My many thanks go out to the nice folks at Alameda Bicycle who helped me figure this rig out.  



American River Bike Trail is Passable -- Mostly

This morning, I left a little early and got onto the bikeway at 19th and C Streets in Sacramento.  At the intersection between the Sacramento Northern Bike Trail and the Jedediah Smith American River Bike Trail, I found standing water--less than a foot deep, but still standing.  I'm riding a new bike, so I decided not to wade it. 

I backtracked a short distance, got onto Del Paso, rode up a user-defined foot-path near the base of the levee, and got around the puddle on dry land.  A dismount was never required, though wide tires were a definite plus on the unpaved and unimproved foot-path. 

In recent posts, I have voiced fears that the debris left over from the flooding would render the trail impassable for days even after the water subsided.  I was pleased to see, this morning, that crews from the City have been working on this as the water was receding.  Once I got beyond the small inundated area, the trail was clean and easily passable for any bicycle.  We're almost back to normal out there.

I rode this morning from 19th and C to Northrup, passing Cal Expo along the way.  The only flooding I saw was at the intersection described above.  I have not travelled in the direction of Discovery Park, where I expect that the flooding was more extensive.  If I get over that way, I will post an update.

Continued Inundation of the American River Parkway

Last night after work, I got onto the bike path at 19th & C and headed up over the bridge to the north side of the American River. I was pleased to find that Northgate Blvd is once again open. That was a problem for me, last week, when I needed to get to Natomas for a meeting. As you recall, I ended up taking the bus. 

The water on the bike trail has receded about forty yards, horizontally. That looks to equate to less than three inches vertically. Maybe you bike commuters out there recognize the location in the photograph above. Off in the distance in the picture is the T-intersection between the Jedediah Smith American River Parkway and the Sacramento Northern Bike Trail. The intersection is still under a fair bit of water.  I didn't feel the need to roll my bike through that sludge so I'm not sure of the depth, but you get the idea. My understanding from talking to others is that the trail is largely submerged behind Costco and REI then accessible again after the Elvas railroad tracks. The access points at Cal Expo and Northrop Ave are open and trail segments between Cal Expo and Fair Oaks are dry, for what it's worth. 

I'm headed to Oakland for a long weekend, leaving on Amtrak tonight. I will check the water level again, probably Tuesday, and post an update. 

Yours for the ride,

DC

An appreciation for Transit Options

Despite a few days of sunny weather, the Sacramento and American Rivers remain high. The bikeway is still flooded and impassable near Del Paso Blvd.  In addition, when I pass over the flooded area on Light Rail, I can see that even the patches of bike path that are exposed mostly covered with debris. Even when the water recedes, it's going to be a while before the path is suitable for skinny road tires. So, I continue to ride H Street. Most days.

On Wednesday last, I needed to attend a meeting up on Truxel. Ordinarily, getting to the Natomas area from downtown is easy by bicycle--one can ride through Discovery Park, along the Sac Northern Bike Path, or up Northgate to get across the sloughs north of the American River.  All three of these options are flooded as I write this, and were flooded all of last week. 

The only viable alternative for a cyclist was to ride all the way to Fair Oaks and then backtrack--a ten mile detour to get from Downtown to Natomas. 

Fortunately, we have other options.

My route on Wednesday was to walk downtown and catch a bus which took me across the Interstate 5 freeway bridge to Natomas--an option which is otherwise closed to cyclists.  

Sacramento isn't a world-class transit city but it does pretty alright for a second-stringer. Being so close to the Bay Area, with its intermeshing and mostly functional transit systems, Sacramento has to provide transit options. Many of us, who spend a good portion of our time in the Bay, would demand this. Or at least, barring that, would think of Sacto as all that more of a backwater for lack of transit.   

Like many community transit systems, Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) is struggling to keep its head and budget above water. It is easy for the politicians in the Capitol or in Washington DC to cut funding for public transit--or bicycle infrastructure, for that matter. Few of their loudest constituents and probably few of them use these services. It seems that the loudest voices in the halls of transportation subcommittees would rather demand continued subsidy for multilane restricted-access highways than for these other services. 

It has been argued that transit and bike lanes are "extras" or that they serve few people for the amount of funding that they require. 

Having seen those of our community who rely on these modes the most, I would find it difficult to see them as so indispensible. Many of the riders who get on the train with me at Alkalai Flat have no other means of transport to get them to and from work. A bicycle is fine but it won't get you there when the bikeway is flooded. A bus is okay but it's healthier and cheaper to ride your bike. We need both options.

Heavy Rains lead to Flooding along the American River Trail

I left my apartment this morning on my usual commute ride.  Down F Street, onto Sixteenth, under the UPRR tracks, back behind the warehouses on North B and onto the bike trail feeder behind the Blue Diamond Almond Plant.  The trail follows the old Sacramento-Chico Traction Commuter rail tracks across the bridge over the American River.  It then drops down into the floodplain... where I found a lake. 

The bike trail disappeared from view and was submerged as far as I could see.  "Damn," I thought, "and I was thinking I'd be to work a little early." 

So I backtracked into town and wound my way on surface streets back to H Street and then the Fair Oaks Bridge.  From there, I got on the bike trail heading the other direction, bound for my usual connection with surface streets at Northrop Ave. 

At some point, as I was riding along the levee, a county park ranger stopped me to warn me that I wouldn't be able to get to downtown due to flooding.  "I figured that out the hard way," I told him, and thanked him for stopping me.  A guy can't be everywhere at once, right?

Nevertheless, I'm trying to find a resource to tell me before I leave for work in the morning if my normal commute route is flooded and impassable or not.  It took me an extra ten minutes to ride out to the lake and then backtrack this morning.

My current plan is to ride H Street, tomorrow, and just check the conditions when I get a chance later this week.  Maybe I'll keep riding H until the Bureau of Reclamation ramps down their Nimbus Dam release (upstream of Sacramento) to less than 30,000 cubic feet per second!  If anyone else has a resource that you use, shoot me a link! 

Safe travels!

An Intersection of Concern

This is the cyclist's view of 21st Street at Capitol in Midtown Sacramento.  Two days ago, I approached this intersection as the light turned green.  The lights are timed, here, so that if one can keep up 20mph all the lights turn green. 

When I approached, as traffic started to move, the second car in line suddenly began a right turn.  The driver did not use a turn signal.  I swerved dramatically, shouting explicatives.  The driver stopped in the middle of the bike lane.  I rode by, with a loud shout, "Use your turn signal!"  The driver completed the right turn after I passed. 

Another friend of mine had a similar experience, end of last week.  A third friend of ours was actually hit by a car at this very location at the beginning of last week.  All three incidents were the same scenario--passing slow or stopped cars, one of which made a sudden turn without signalling. 

The dashed white line reminds us, of course, that cars may be changing lanes in this area.  Approaching the intersection, it makes sense to be alert to this potential.  Only a certain measure of mind-reading is possible from the saddle, though. 

If you drive a car... please make using your turn signal at least three seconds BEFORE you begin your turn a habit.  Not only is it the law, but it could save a fellow citizen from injury. 

Use of turn signals or blinkers appears to have been a fad that has fallen out of favor with Sacramento drivers in particular.

I guess it's kind of like calling your shots when playing pool.  If you know what you're doing and play with a degree of skill, calling the shot is no big deal.  If you're just pushing the ball around the table, though, calling a shot doesn't move you closer to your goal--you can't say, "I meant to do that," if you called a different shot!  If you're just pushing your car around the street, safety isn't on your mind--all you're thinking about is getting there.  A driver that isn't using turn signals is just pushing their car around the road--an objective hazard to not just cyclists but also other motorists and pedestrians. 

If you drive a car, please think about what you're doing while driving.  Drive intentionally and drive to promote both your safety and the safety of those around you.

Many thanks.
DC

The Automobile has been Replaced

For a long time, I kept my car around because I figured that I needed it to transport bulky items.  Since we purchased a house, I have transported probably a dozen sheets of plywood on the roof of my car--sometimes singly, sometimes six sheets at a time.  How could I transport six sheets of plywood on my bike?



Enter the Bikes-at-Work 96A trailer into my life.  Ah, the fresh air!  When I sold the car, I specifically decided that proceeds from the sale would go toward the purchase of this trailer.  Well, here it is hauling a bicycle.  The first week after I assembled it, I went to the hardware store and bought two 4'x8' sheets of 1/4" exterior sheathing, four six-foot 2x4's, and a bunch of hardware.  It went onto the trailer so easily that I forgot to photograph it. 

As you can see, cargo can easily be loaded over the fenders--or maybe I should call those WHEEL WELLS. 

The manufactuer, Bikes-at-Work, claims that these wheel wells have the same 300# capacity as the trailer.  Just toss your bulky items on, tie them down, and off you go. 

A good set of brakes on the bike is, of course, recommended if operating with a heavy load.  I wouldn't suggest going randonee in hill-country while pulling this, either.  It's a great trailer though and has already come in handy repeatedly in the three weeks that I've owned it.  I made two Oakland-to-Alameda trips with it just this weekend. 

The trailer comes in a package about half the size of a bike box, delivered to your door and ready for assembly.  Assembly took me about an hour and required two wrenches and a screwdriver.  The kit comes with wrenches, but I don't recommend trying to use them.  Get real wrenches. 

The photos above show the trailer with a plywood floor that I installed as a retrofit in week two.  Not counting the time spent waiting for the varnish to dry, installing the floor on the already-assembled trailer took less than an hour.  The manufacturer provided excellent instructions for this retrofit as a part of the original purchase. 

Its a pedal-powered pickup truck! 

Go Ride A Bike

Sometimes we get lucky, this time of year, and get a day when the weather is perfect and we have time to enjoy it.  The combination is great.  There are a lot of gorgeous days in Central California, in February, when I'm stuck at work or busy fixing something around the house.  The last three days that I have set aside specifically for a recreational bike trip... it rained. 

Yesterday was beautiful.  Clear skies and no wind.  Mid-fifties.  I was at a training center near the edge of town and also near the Sacramento River.  I had lunch by the river.  It was such a great lunch, I think I saw twelve species of birds just eating lunch. 

I went back to the training center--where I sat in a room and watched an instructor show me how to use a computer program on a projector--and thought about how great lunch was.  "Hey!" I thought, it's light out until after six o'clock now.  If I get out of training around four... I could go do a real ride! 

Sacramento is out in the flatlands.  The city is at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers and is surrounded by agriculture and floodplain (often one in the same).  Going north out of town, there is a winding levee road along the river.  I followed it up to the airport and hung a right, heading back to town the long way. 
 I really can't justify NOT doing trips like this more often.  There is so much beautiful countryside so nearby--and it's so flat that I can easily ride for hours without really having to psyche myself up for it.  Hills are fun, but just rolling along a farm road is pretty fun, too. 

It was a nice ride.  I got back to my apartment just a little after six and ate everything in the cupboard.

As the days get longer (and before temperatures break ninety), I intend to do more rides like this.  If you have gotten out of the habit yourself, what with short days and nasty weather... go out and ride a bike!

Cycling in Dense Fog

Sacramento is situated in California's Central Valley.  This area is known in the winter to meteorologists as "Fog Central".  It's a technical term.  The place gets some pretty low visibility mornings.  The photographs you see here aren't the worst mornings--such photographs just appear gray.  I routinely wake up in the morning and cannot see across the residential city street my apartment faces on. 

Despite the dense foggery, I still need to get to work in the morning.   Sure, I can still take the bus.  When I take the bus, though, I'd rather not bring my bike.  The front fender doesn't like the bike racks on the public transit buses.  Without my bike, I'm pretty much obliged to take the bus both ways.  I'd rather be able to at least ride home in the evening.

All of this riding in the fog keeps me thinking about my visibility.  As we move later into the winter, I find myself riding home from work in at least waning daylight... so the fog becomes my main obstacle to being seen. 

Lights are as important in daylight with fog as they are at night.  One difference that I have observed, though, is the TYPE of light that is important. 

For my night riding, I have two headlights.  One creates a powerful, beam that focuses well ahead of me.  The other provides a wider beam that illuminates the pavement immediately in front of me and helps avoid road hazards such as potholes.  In the fog, the wide beam is much less useful. 

The fog is rarely so thick that I cannot see the pavement in front of me.  The real issue is getting motorists and other cyclists to see ME.  Thus, the focused beam.  I find that, when following other cyclists in the fog, that focused taillights are also much more visible in the fog.  Lights like Planet Bike's Superflash will cut through some amount of pea soup.  Simple LEDs with no focusing lens just seem to get lost--absorbed into the mist. 

The majority of other road users notice that visibility is impaired on foggy mornings.  I say this because I notice that the cars move a little slower and a little more deliberately.  As a cyclist, my immediate movements are less affected by reduced 100m visibility--I can see the pavement that I need to see in order to navigate.  As a cyclist, I need to widen my sphere of attention on these mornings and become extra aware of what OTHERS can see. 

Though I may feel that I do not need to slow down or be more deliberate in my actions on foggy mornings, I kick it down a notch anyway.  If I signal for an EXTRA three seconds before turning, there is more chance that my intentions will be understood.  If I take turns or change lanes more slowly, other road users have more opportunity to react. 

Those are the take-homes for cycling in fog:
  Be deliberate and communicate
  Use focused-beam lights

Is there too MUCH illumination?

I am really interested in being visible.  I realize that this is what I see most of the time: 

It's not such a bad view.  I mean, don't get me wrong--I'm not constantly looking down over my front wheel.  I am constantly looking out for what's around me.  But no matter how alert we are, there are important details and tags that we will miss in the environment around us.  This morning, I almost got totally creamed by a minivan turning left in front of me because I wasn't watching over my shoulder at that moment.  It happens and someday it may be the death of me. 

I'm thinking of this because, having spent much of my life behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle, I realize that motorists are missing as much or more than I am.  The minivan driver maybe didn't even see me.  It was after sunrise, but early enough that I still had my lights on.  Dawn and dusk are certainly the times when we are most likely to miss things--the lighting is odd and sometimes there is fatigue to complicate the whole affair. 

With all of this in mind, as you see above, I am riding with two headlights.  I run one solid and one flashing in an effort to be as eye-catching as possible but still be able to see where I'm going.  I also roll with two tailights--one on my seatpost and another on my helmet.  My front wheel has two red spoke-lights which improve my visibility from the side.  I wear reflective bands on both ankles and have reflective highlights on the shoulders of my jacket. 

I'm all for visibility. 

Riding the bike trail portion of my commute, though, I am often confronted with this view:   

Which often leaves me utterly unable to see where I'm going.  Last night at one point, I had to actually stop my bike and wait for my fellow cyclist to pass on by. 

I hadn't thought carefully about this until this winter.  I have been reading a few other cycling blogs, most pertinent here is the Lazy Randonneur:  http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/i-dont-hate-dinotte/

In a series of articles on bicycle illumination, he makes some excellent points about lights that are TOO bright.  In particular, I hadn't considered that an ultra-bright tail-light may actually blind an unsuspecting motorist.  Maybe it's just impolite to flash that red thing at other cyclists on the bike trail? 

I am maintaining my lighting arrangement but with a few caveats.  I have taken to intentionally turning off my brightest lights when I encounter other cyclists on the trail.  I think this is a good first step.  The result has been that about half of the cyclists that I meet do the same, which probably improves the experience for both of us. 

Thusfar, I have not adjusted my lighting when I am on city streets.  The Randonneur is comparing some pretty friggen BRIGHT lights--so bright that they are out of the realm of what I ride with.  Some of my comrades on the bike trail are putting thousands of candlepower out on the trail, but my brightest light is a Planet Bike 1W.  The brighter tail light is pretty common, the Planet Bike Superflash.  I have followed this light and am not dazzled by it.  I am making an effort though to keep it pointed horizontally and not into the eyes of my fellow citizens! 

Anyhow.  I'm not trying to complain.  But it is something I'm thinking about.  I appreciate the roughly 50% of cyclists that have taken to dimming their lights when they pass me on the trail! 

The Night of the Dark Salmon

Deep in the dark recesses of Sacramento, there lurks a creature more dangerous and more menacing than even the morning commuter.  I speak of the Dark Salmon and I fear my daily journey into his realm. 

Last night, I encountered the Dark Salmon.  Fortunately, I lived to tell the tale.  I did shout and I did swerve, but the Dark Salmon did not strike me. 

I was riding home from work, on the right side of the street as we often do, outside of the British Commonwealth.  There was oncoming traffic and the lights were a little blinding.  They weren't so bright that I couldn't see the pedestrians walking along the shoulder, though.  I avoided the pedestrians.  Perhaps these pedestrians saved me?  I wonder this because, a split second after passing them, a dark figure swept into my field of view. 

The Dark Salmon was riding an old mountain bike.  He was dressed in dark clothes and had no lights.  He was riding toward me and, had I not moved to avoid the pedestrians, it might have been pretty nasty.  We passed so close and so quickly that I shouted in momentary terror.  I was so close!  I fear the Dark Salmon.

Nevertheless, I will continue defying death by riding my bike with the flow of traffic.  I will continue to defy norms and customs by illuminating my bike and making myself visible.  I will do what I can to avoid altercations with others who use the public rights of way.  Perhaps one day, the Dark Salmon will do the same.