Join me for 30 Days of Biking in April

This post also appears on the Seattle Big Blog. Join the conversation in the comments section there.

Last August I was new to Twitter and in my poking around soon discovered 30 Days of Biking, in its second iteration. The brainchild of two friends in Minneapolis, it’s heavily populated by Minnesotans, but open to everyone. Round three starts next Friday and I can’t wait!

I started the challenge just to see if I could do it, but in the end it changed me from a fair-weather cyclist into someone seriously working towards becoming car free. Over the course of the month I cycled to places I hadn’t dreamed possible or previously considered practical. I ride with two small children on my bike and two baskets stuffed with toys and snacks so I have to keep my routes pretty flat or I get stuck dismounting and pushing my heavy rig slowly uphill.

I mustered the strength to ride from Green Lake to Phinney Ridge every week and eventually found a route (albeit twenty blocks out of the way) that was completely rideable. Since the bus was so easy for getting to the Seattle Center, I never thought to bike there. Turns out that while it’s a bit of a pain to cross Aurora, it’s totally worth doing. Plus it set us up for confidently biking to Bumbershoot later in the month and taking advantage of the secure bike parking and the freebie-filled VIB (Very Important Biker) booth.

Of course there were a couple less-than-stellar days, including a pajama-clad ride up and down my driveway at 11:59pm and bribing the Puyallup Fair parking lot attendant with an apple fritter to let me ride his mountain bike for a couple minutes.

Here’s the official blurb from 30DoB:

The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures online. We believe biking enriches life, builds community, and preserves the Earth. This is the second year, and third round, of 30 Days of Biking.

Want to join the fun? The first step is to register. There’s also a Facebook page to like and a Facebook event to attend. Follow the tweets with the #30daysofbiking hashtag and use it in your event-related tweets.

Group rides are also part of the bargain. Minneapolis boasts several rides and it seems that Portland is getting into the 30DoB game in a big way, too. I’m hoping more Seattlites get involved that some events spring up here.