Do you remember what you were doing on April 20th, 1999? I do. Owen Young, Mark Taylor, and myself were at a gas station in Bellevue, Washington. Some punk kid asked us if we wanted some weed. We politely declined.
To us, the little road trip to Washington was an epic adventure. When we planned the trip, I seriously believed Owen just wanted to do some serious riding in the Pacific Northwest. It didn't even cross my mind that his girlfriend was from the area and it would be the last time he would see her before spending two years as a missionary. Fortunately, Owen has always been a man of priorities. The girlfriend thing didn't interfere with the riding at all (in fact, girlfriend's mom even washed our muddy clothes at one point in time. Thank you, girlfriend's mom).
I receently revisited one of the trails we rode. Preston Railroad. It was just as good as I remembered. Halfway through the ride, I realized I was riding the same bike on the same trail that I rode 7 years ago. Unfortunately, my body isn't nearly as supple anymore. I decided on the spot to begin investigating full suspension bikes. It was as if the Bontrager had returned to give me one last good ride before entering retirement.
One highlight of the ride came at the end of a nasty, rooted section followed by a sharp switchback. I cleared the section with relative ease, but two riders waiting below the switch back gave me a node and said "Nice." For someone who hasn't done any serious riding in a very long time, it was rather gratifying.
1 comment:
this is when i note that you have been an engineer for far too long. They gave you a node?
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