Another beautiful day, another beautiful ride. This one is a bit of a favorite as we spend a good amount of time and miles in Rock Creek Park with one of my favorite segements being the hills around the Nature Center where we enjoy the climbing as we criss-cross the valley. Most of those roads see little traffic or are closed. The pics show what the absence of traffic does. Of course, if those leaves were snow, it would be gone soon enough, regardless of the traffic volumes. While pretty, leaves accumulated like this hide road hazards and debris that can cause a serious accident for a cyclist. I'm starting to see this same accumulation in bike lanes where adjacent traffic pushes an amazing collection of junk into the "shoulder" area of most roads. If we want people to use these alternate facilities, maybe we should think of that "junk" the same way we think of snow, something to be removed, post-haste!