Craig Daily Press

Photo by Hans Hallgren

Terry Carwile shows off his special shoes Thursday before riding home from work. The shoes are made with a cleat underneath that attaches to a pedal on his bike.

Craig — Gears clacked and brakes creaked as Tom Gilchrist came to a gentle stop at a crossing.

“I can’t believe this day,” he said, looking at the stretch of southbound Ranney Street that lay before him early Thursday morning. “Boy, it’s beautiful.”

As he pedaled on, many passing vehicles left him a wide swath. He occasionally raised his hand in a brief greeting as they passed.

Gilchrist, with his close fitting shorts and streamlined helmet, looked like a cyclist out for a day’s exercise.

However, Gilchrist wasn’t on a pleasure ride. He was going to work.

Gilchrist has been a cyclist for at least 15 years. He pedals his way to his job, often year-round.

He leaves his house about 7:15 a.m. every day and travels to his job at the TriState Power Plant, about 5 miles from his home in Craig.

Commuting from home to work via bicycle takes Gilchrist about 30 minutes one way, he said.

Gilchrist doesn’t mind the extended travel time on a bike, he said. Instead, he prefers it.

“I like riding to work because it gives you a separation between work and home, both ways,” he said.

When traveling to or from work in a car, “you’re not really away from either long enough to make a clean break,” he said.

Gilchrist didn’t start out as an avid bicyclist.

“Just like any kid, I had a bike growing up,” he said. “When I got my driver’s license, that was the last time I rode it.”

Enter Ride the Rockies, a weeklong bike tour that stretches between 350 and 450 miles through Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

About 13 years ago, the event wound its way through Craig, Gilchrist said, adding that participating bicyclists stayed at Gilchrist’s home.

Brief exposure to the competitive bicycle event was enough to prompt him to try the tour for himself, he said, adding that he has been biking regularly ever since.

So far this year, Gilchrist has biked about 500 miles, he said — a far cry from the 1,500 miles he logged this time last year.

Still, considering the average price of gas in Craig is about $4.44 a gallon, Gilchrist has saved nearly $150 by riding his bike instead of driving his truck those 500 miles, which he said gets about 15 miles per gallon.

Gilchrist said he usually bikes year-round — in good weather and bad, on snow-packed roads and on thoroughfares warmed by the summer sun.

At his home in Craig, Gilchrist stores his winter gear in his garage. A set of studded snow tires hang on the wall and, in a high cabinet, a pair of 6- and 10-watt lights wait for dark, early morning rides in the winter months.

Neoprene booties and protective pockets that cover the bike’s handles and keep his hands warm complete his winter attire.

In any weather, his mode of travel can be dangerous.

Gilchrist’s wife, Beth, said she worries about his safety and that of other cyclists when they’re out on the roads.

“It’s a natural instinct to worry when they’re out there,” she said as she watched Tom gear up for his morning commute Thursday.

Still, Tom said she has little to fear, at least from motorists.

“I would call Craig a very bike-friendly town,” he said.

Gilchrist’s closest call to having an accident didn’t involve a car, truck or bus. Instead, he said, it was with a herd of elk.

While riding home one dark, winter night, he unexpectedly rolled into a group of the animals crossing the road.

“They didn’t hear me or see me, and I didn’t hear them or see them until I got right in the middle of them,” he said.

When the herd started to scatter, Gilchrist expected the worst.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, they’re going to trample me.’”

Instead, the group dispersed, leaving Gilchrist unscathed.

“They never even touched me,” he said.

Several other Craig residents also have opted for pedal-driven transportation.

Terry Carwile, Craig Chamber of Commerce sportsman information officer, began riding his bike to work about 16 years ago, he said.

“Before I retired from Trapper (Mine), I tried to bike as much as I could,” he said.

His bicycling was limited to the months without snow.

“Riding out there in the winter was a problem,” he said. “I tried it one year, but between the snowplows and the cold weather and the frozen shifters … I couldn’t make that work.”

His commute spanned about 17 miles, round trip, he said, adding that he saved about one gallon of gas a day by choosing to bike.

“In today’s dollars … it made a difference,” he said. “I thought it was making a big difference when gas was 3 bucks a gallon.”

Like Gilchrist, Carwile believes biking comes with a fair share of risk.

“It’s dangerous out there; that’s for sure,” he said. “I don’t think people are necessarily hostile (to cyclists), so to speak, but people aren’t programmed to see people on bicycles.”

Steve Martinson, an art teacher at Ridgeview, Sunset and East elementary schools, also bikes to work regularly. As he commutes from school to school, he carries his portfolio in tow using a carrier he made out of fiberglass and bungee cords, he said.

The experience, he said, is “invigorating.”

“I get to school feeling a lot fresher … more alert and awake, than on days I would have to drive the car,” he said.

“I think people would be surprised how enjoyable it is,” Martinson said.

Some would-be cyclists may be finding out first-hand.

Although sales haven’t increased at J&R Cyclery from last year, Owner Aaron Ruybalid said more customers are bringing in bikes for repair, another sign that in this day of rising fuel prices, more people are choosing conservative travel options.

“We have a lot of people that are digging (their bikes) out of the garage that haven’t rode them in six (or) seven years,” he said.

“We’ve been slammed all summer,” he said. “I’m just buried down here.”