Are we home yet?: How cycling changes your perception of distance

Driving home from Toronto the other day I realized again just how my sense of distance has changed since I started riding. I think of “home” as places within my riding range. So Westchester Bourne totally counts as home even though I don’t take that exit. It leads to Belmont and Nilestown, frequent cycling destinations.

Over time of course that range has changed. I remember laughing one time because I realized that a corner I once struggled to ride as far as now counted as “almost home.” Ilderton and Vanneck is still about 25 km from my home and at one point there and back was my longest ride. In fact, the first time I encountered that intersection I’d driven my car to the edge of town first with the bike on a rack on the back.

But now? Now I think of that final 25 km–10 of which is noodling on the multi-use pathway–as pretty much home. There’s only 15 km of fast riding left. And then a slow noodle…

I love how cycling has connected to me to the network of country roads, small towns, and coffee shops and diners around London, Ontario.

How about you? Do you know the names of all the small towns and coffee shops within a 100 km range of your home town? How far from home starts to feel “almost there”?