Apr 012023
Riding Down Memory Lane: April

Thanks for the happy bike drawing, Melissa Balmer of PedalLove.org!

When you participate in an annual bike event, you create your own path down memory lane. Will you complete a multi-day challenge successfully? April is the perfect month to test that! Where I live trees, bushes, and flowers have already started blooming, birds are singing, frogs are peeping, and occasionally rain is falling even though the sun is shining. That’s okay; I think of it as rainbow weather.

Reminder of April Bike Events

April 1-30, #30DaysOfBiking: So easy. No, really. Just ride every day. Totally counts if you ride to the end of the driveway and back, put your bike on the trainer and spin while you binge on Netflix or Hulu, take a quick Tour de My Block—however you turn your cranks, it counts.

April 22, Celebrate Trails Day and also Earth Day: Neither of these is a “bike-only” event, but a great reason to get your bike out on a trail or to replace what would have been a car trip with some zero-carbon pedaling. Celebrate Trails Day is promoted by the Rails to Trails Conservancy on the fourth Saturday of April.

Errandonnee not happening unless you DIY. I was hoping to find it back again this year but DC rider/blogger/Inventor of Fun Informal Challenges Mary Gersemalina told me she decided to retire it. The 2021 errandonnee post will give you an idea of what was involved. The rules got tweaked a bit each year to mix it up. Basically you bike, walk, or run to a variety of destination types over a specific time period and reach the target mileage total. You could decide your own list of destinations for a DIY version any time of year. My record over the years was spotty, to put it mildly.

Civic action time: Ask your city council, county commission, or governor to adopt a proclamation for Bike Month coming up in May. Yes, it’s a symbolic gesture. And symbols matter. This bike advocacy toolkit from Washington Bikes includes a sample you can adapt no matter where you live. My post on the WSDOT blog, Bike Everywhere Month Rolls in May, shares a copy of the 2022 state proclamation by Gov. Jay Inslee.

Riding Down Memory Lane: Posts I Wrote in Aprils Past

(Post updated April 5 to add Celebrate Trails Day)

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