Best commute on two wheels.

Byline: THE OUTSIDER By John Rezell The Register-Guard

The dawn's early light poked through the tall oaks, having finally cleared the ridge just east of Andy Stahl-Wellborn's sheep farm.

Nestled in the beautiful Lorane Valley, Stahl-Wellborn and his family wake each morning to near idyllic bliss. Round about 7, the school bus crunches down the dead end gravel road to pick up his kids.

Stahl-Wellborn usually walks them to the bus stop in his lycra cycling clothes, and sometimes jumps right onto his bike and follows the bus back out to Territorial Highway.

"Unless it's too dusty or wet," he says, adding that, well, that's usually the case.

The mile ride on the rustic gravel is just long enough to help you rattle yourself awake, not to mention come to grips that you must leave this dreamy setting behind for another day at the office.

Then, just like that, you hit the highway and officially begin what he calls Eugene's best bicycle commute.

The kickoff of this commute belies its dominant, mellow feel. The first two miles offer the best and the worst of it.

The best because it's far away from the madness. The worst because, once on Territorial Highway, you have a mile of treacherous conditions until you reach Lorane Highway.

The opening stretch of highway offers no bike lane, and the traffic roars through the snaking road. Basically, once you hit pavement, it's an all-out rush to the safe confines of the Lorane Highway.

When you do hit Gillespie's Corner, and begin to head toward the rising sun, the pastoral setting calms your senses. It's easy to get swept away, soaking it in.

Of course, Stahl-Wellborn has been soaking it in for the better part of 10 years now.

It isn't exactly an everyday commute on his bike. It is, however, a better than 50-50 proposition that he'll be on his bike.

It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to feel what it would be like to be a lone commuter, watching the day begin. Reality, however, is that Stahl-Wellborn makes this ride far too often alone, so on this day, with a companion, he relishes the chance to strike up conversation.

And a mile or so into the commute, that's perfectly fine. Because Stahl-Wellborn proves to be as interesting as the passing countryside. The conversation bounces around from bicycle racing, which he took up last year, to education, to which he devotes time as a member of the school board, to conservation, which could be considered his claim to fame.

As we chug up Welder's hill, then fly down the backside, Stahl-Wellborn gives up some inside info, that he was one of the first activists to use the Northern Spotted Owl as ammunition to help save old growth forests.

He was on that battlefront years ago, and continues other environmental battles as part of his 9-to-5 office existence in Eugene proper. We continue along the winding creek and begin the final climb into the city.

Once we begin to pedal along parked cars that line city streets, Stahl-Wellborn appears to have finished his transformation from valley farmer to city professional in an oddly seamless manner. Instead of trudging into the office for another day in the salt mines, he appears fresh, invigorated and ready for action.

Some commutes simply take you from physical point to physical point. Other commutes transcend that plane, to another realm. At least that's the case with this one, the one Andy Stahl-Wellborn calls Eugene's best bicycle commute.

Do you have an outdoor adventure you'd like to share? John Rezell, aka Raz, is former editor of VeloNews and bike.com. Invite him along at [e-mail].

ON THE WEB

Be on the inside looking at The Outsider John Rezell's blog at www.registerguard.com/outsider/