{"id":722,"date":"2010-07-29T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/2010\/07\/29\/saving-the-view-one-ride-at-a-time\/"},"modified":"2010-07-29T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T15:00:00","slug":"saving-the-view-one-ride-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2010\/07\/29\/saving-the-view-one-ride-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving the View, One Ride at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"View<\/a>Riding across the I-90 bridge on my morning commute, I reveled in the mountain views. What a beautiful place I have the honor and pleasure of calling home! Yet the view saddened me, too: After a day or two without rain, the smog buildup begins obscuring the mountains. This morning, after a dry week, I could barely make out Mt. Rainier. It looked like a mirage, faint white and blue brush strokes painted onto the blue-brown horizon. The Cascades hid in the hazy distance, and the Olympics shyly showed only a faint outline to the west.<\/p>\n

This saddened me because I remember how stunning, even breathtaking, I found the same vistas in January. When the clouds and rain gave us surcease, the mountains came out looking close enough to touch. The Cascades and Olympics stood out vividly, their snow-capped peaks cutting boldly across the wintry blue sky, their foothills definitively black and navy and purple. Sunrise light (which coincided with my morning commute) gilded Mt. Rainier and its shawl of wispy clouds, later turning the snow the colors of a Dream Come True<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Comparing my memory of the crisp winter mountain views with the summer’s smoggy blur reinforced my top reason for bicycling: reducing my environmental impact. Cutting carbon footprint isn’t on the forefront of most bicyclists’ minds. People usually ride to save money — that’s the number one reason. Other reasons to ride<\/a> include:<\/p>\n