Anacostia commuter retires after rowing to work 15 years [View all]

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Anacostia commuter retires after rowing to work 15 years

Daily trips offered firsthand view of river’s transformation

By Whitney Pipkin on January 05, 2016



The commute takes Gabe Horchler an hour and a half to get from one door to the other when he rows. Photo / Dave Harp

For Gabe Horchler, the sounds of sirens and idling cars on the Anacostia Freeway aren’t disruptions to an otherwise peaceful trip down the river. They’re reminders of one of the many reasons he rows. ... Most every weekday, from March to December, for the last 15 years, Horchler has taken the river, rather than the road, for at least one leg of his commute from home in Cheverly, MD, to work at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

If he rows to work on a Monday, he’ll take the metro home that evening, then reverse course the following day, taking the metro to work and rowing home. The commute is car-less, but it is “a three-bike operation” to get him from his house to one boathouse, the other boathouse to work and then from the metro stop in Cheverly to his home.

It also takes the Anacostia River which, despite the “forgotten-river” reputation it has begun to shed, is as straight a route as any paved one from Horchler’s home to his office. ... “I think a lot of people can’t quite comprehend it,” he said of his daily rows in a slender Vespoli scull, much like those used by area rowing teams. “But this is the ideal arrangement, because it’s such a straight shot. It’s perfect.”

The river is a route he would commend to anyone looking for an alternative to the packed subway trains and standstill interstates of Washington, though he has yet to meet anyone else who takes it. ... And, when he retires after 47 years at the library in February, so will his river commuting.