Ah, good to be back on the bike outside, on a rare 60F winter day…beautiful!
Decided that my mountain bike was the perfect vehicle for an outdoor spin in over 2 months…pumped up the tires, lubed the chain, and out the door for 1:30 of joyful riding…really _weird_ but great to be ‘steering’ the bike again after a couple of months on the indoor trainer 🙂
Ran a few errands, then rolled over to the Davidson 8K cross-country trail for a spirited 24 minutes through the hilly forest terrain.
The picture isn’t from today, but rather one that reminded me of a day a few years ago that I spent with my son riding ‘downhill’ mountain bikes at Whistler with a buddy of his…both on the National Snowboard Team then, so their idea of downhill mountain biking is push-off from the top, and see you at the bottom…and yeah they knew this was my first time out on a downhill mountain bike…and probably the first time on a mountain bike in 20 years at the time…yeah, let’s see what dad’s got…
If you’re not familiar with downhill mountain biking, you rent a very heavy, $5,000, high performance, full suspension bike at the bottom of what-used-to-be-ski-runs-in-the-winter, and then get on the gondola with your bike…get whisked to the top of the mountain, select the steepest and gnarliest downhill trail that’s still legally open…and been modified for the hard-core downhillers…push-off, and LET IT ALL HANG OUT.
This picture would have been a perfect re-enactment of the point, just before I crashed at the bottom of a 30 foot ‘cliff’…my thought process perfectly captured in my post from a few days ago:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/ive-got-a-cape-i-think-i-can-make-it/
…about as steep as you see…light drizzle on the day just to make things slippery and interesting on the rocks…more like a bottoming-out-then-short-out-of-control-speed-wobble-then-crash…ribs hurt for a month…but only when I was breathing…still rode the rest of the day of course…even the young lads ended up splayed on the ground from time to time…great fun…note to self: get the full body armor package next time 🙂
The one thing that I’ve probably enjoyed the most about ‘being in shape’ is that I actually get to do stuff like that…and can…not only with my adult ‘kids’ but also when I want to…like even today…more modest, but a quick ride through the forest, pushing a few hills, spinning through the mud, skidding a few turns…laughing out loud…big smile I’m sure…priceless.