Photo credit: Seattle Parks

At Seattle Bicycle Expo last month, I was approached by one of our event volunteers while working my shift in the Cascade booth.

He cut right to the chase. “So, um. Do you ride north on the Burke-Gilman Trail every day at 8:30 a.m.?” he asked.

The answer, of course, was yes. And yes, he rides south on the trail, every day at 8:30 a.m.

We shook hands, compared routes, and promised to wave the next time we see one another.

I haven’t managed to spot him since then (and I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t even remember his name). But I have been working on getting smiles and head-nods out of the other people whom I pass on the trail every day.

I’ve come to think of them as “trail buddies.” There’s a woman on an upright bike who never wears a helmet. There’s a man with a kid-sized seat on his rack (though I haven’t yet spotted the kid who rides in it). There’s a guy I’ve been seeing for three years now, trudging along every morning, no matter what the weather.

To all of you, I would like to say: Thank you riding with me. You give me a sense of community and camaraderie. Especially on those cold, rainy mornings that leave me tempted to ditch my bike and head straight for the heated seat of a four-wheeled vehicle.

Also, I have an orange helmet. You should wave to me.

It's a bike! With a bucket!

I spotted him first. It was 7:45 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday morning in October. He was on a bike, riding up the (quite steep) hill outside our kitchen window, pulling (what looked like) a giant black bucket behind him. And in the bucket, he was carrying not one, not two, but THREE small children.

I yelled to my roommate, “There’s a guy outside! And he’s riding up the hill! With three kids! In a bucket!”

And yes, despite the early hour, I used four exclamation points.

Henceforth, he became Bucket Guy.

I’ve been told that Bucket Guy’s bike is a Madsen. (New to me, and I’m quite intrigued.) I haven’t yet managed to flag him down as he huffs his way up that hill, but my roommate has. She pedaled up behind him last week and sent me this email:

The bike comes built that way, with the “box,” as he called it, attached.  It can hold up to 600 lbs!  And there are seatbelts for four kids (one of the three kids in the bucket told me this!).  I asked him if he rides a lot and he said, “as much as I can.”  Then I was just about to ask him if he’d like to talk to you sometime but we went in different directions and he was starting up a steep hill so I didn’t want to make him lose momentum.

So it goes. Bucket Guy, whoever you are, I salute you. Thanks for making my days a little brighter.