I had to smile, chuckle and groan at your imaginary ride (View From The Saddle, July 9). As a West Seattleite I ride that route often whether commuting or training and I have encountered all of the situations you described. From May to September I usually just ride the road and avoid the "bike" path altogether. I'll take a car over a small child on a razor scooter any day for predictability.

I did want to share one particular occurrence I see from time to time and once caused me to crash (bias alert) on this route. It seems one of the few, or only, perks that Park employees get is the right to park their Ford 350 pickups dead center of the bike path so that they can empty garbage cans within 24 inches of their vehicles. This must be a major time savings over parking on the curb and walking a whole 10 feet!

I encountered one such green behemoth on a Monday morning commute headed south just past the boat launch (going toward Salty's) paying more attention to my muttered gripes about the $%*ing truck on a path, than my bike handling, I caught my front tire in the groove between sidewalk and grass and promptly dumped the bike and myself in the grass. Ha! Guess that's what I get for being a curmudgeon when I could have just looked around and seen; sound, city Olympics and reconsidered the minor inconvenience of misplaced city vehicle.

Keep them coming I enjoy your saddle segment.

Ryan Surface

West Seattle