Friend

This past Thanksgiving weekend, I'm giving thanks to my friends to whom I owe my sanity.  They fuel the stoke on all things 2-wheeled and drive the catharsis within my 2-wheeled life.  Pondering this, I started wondering just what it means to be a "friend" in this crazy 2-wheeled existence..........

What is the nature of this word, Friend?  Is it someone who pushes you out of bed, early on Thanksgiving to go ride Goat Camp in the fading darkness of night?

Is it someone who pushes you up the hill with nothing more than an "atta-boy" and an empty stomach?  The call to dig a hole in ourselves before we fill it back up with pumpkin pie is ever-present.

Is a friend someone you share in the wonderment of nature.......

....or could it be the sporting harassment when one is working an uphill switchback?

Perhaps its the oneupmanship game played when two folks try to guess the vertical elevation gain between switchbacks, one canyon over.  The answer to this question is 240 ft.......Rhino guessed 300...I guessed 250....Bob Barker rules apply....so I win a respectful nod....and the nod is sold gold in our world.....this world of overcast purple skis, rocky massifs and a lingering belt of persimmon upon the horizon

Perhaps the 2-wheeled friend is defined by a shared experience in climbing above the festering neon distraction in the autumn grasses of the Sonoran highlands.....the cool breeze creating a cacophony of sound from grasses rubbing against themselves; much like the sound of a thousand bartenders, shaking a crushed ice martini within their weathered and tired hands........

This early world we climb into is a place where the rules of the lower world don't apply.....the simple rules of food, water and shelter are the only important factors here....respect them, and you'll be fine....

........and I suppose we could be bitter when we descend back to the complex life we left, away from the unforgiving yet simple world of the paradigm we have existed within for tens of thousands of years ....yet our return is buoyed by the exhilaration of another safe return to those we love and call friends....healthy, alive and well.  All we need to be thankful for is right in front of us....and nothing more.

On yet another ride, I find silent humor in an old friend fishing for some gear in a pack.....the concentration expended to find a camera not packed away is predictable if not tragic...for this friend has endured many a folly produced from my own absentmindedness.  Me, showing up at doorstep, ready for a backcountry adventure on snow.....if not for one important item....my ski boots.......

On our climb up the East-End of Tom's Thumb.....friends in tandem are seen riding....the joy I find in capturing a rare moment of two friends, husband and wife, riding together is shared...

A hiker volunteers to take our picture at the base of Toms Thumb.....3 Pivot's, 3 Friends, 1 two-wheeled love....For the record, I'm not on the pink one......but, if you should ask...the Pink one goes really, DMM Fast.....

Seeing beauty expressed in shadow, glistening phenochrysts, blue sky and fracture is one thing....experiencing it with friends makes it somehow, more valuable...more viable....more lived.

Seeing the joy that I feel in the ride, expressed in others, is a validation of my ride......my new life......Dara validating in the rare shadows of two house-sized granite boulders....

Troy validating in front of fractured slabs.......

I feel the urge to capture the moment for people......the moment will never be as real as it is in each mind.....but as humans, we struggle to communicate to those outside our experience; the sights, sounds and smells of our most valued experiences.  I hope my attempt to capture helps in this regard.....

Descending back down.....strong light on iron-rich soils and opportunistic saguaros give perspective to the switchback attack taking place by two, very skilled riders....

....my awe in the scene unfolds as do my thoughts.

At this moment; friendship is about the admiration in others sharing an experience.....and being in awe of what we're able to share with them.

As I start to put the camera away, I hesitate for a second more and shoot just one more shot of Troy contrasted by towering saguaros, razor straight; growing thick on a switchback and providing vertical perspective in a world dominated by horizontal tendencies.  I savor from afar, what I'm about to experience........nothing more than an anticipated feeling, a Pavlovian drool within my brain.....a shared experience not yet earned.  As I see my friends carving down the singletrack, hooting and hollering at each other with each switchback successfully negotiated....I put my camera away and dive into the descending red dirt, in pursuit of the shared experience....

The little places

The little places where fears still reside on a ride have now been overtaken by a heavy dose of humility, sense of humor and irreverence in the fact that I'm still a jackass on two-wheels, trying to be serious about getting better at riding a bike.....ohh, the folly!  I suppose I should either start wearing a clown suit, or nut-up and shut-up and get on a training regime.....but that would take effort....so i'll stick with the hybrid plan....a comprehensive plan.  A plan which incorporates both contingencies.....a maad plan....

Rolling into the AES Kentucky Camp base of operations this weekend, I found myself alone on a Friday night.  Alone in my sickness of bronchitis, sinusitis and lamenisitus.  I've been off the bike for 2 whole weeks up until last Monday because I was moving my domicile into a new zip code.  I suppose this could be counted as a bit of cross training, but my sensible self told me otherwise.....but, hey....look....a beautiful sunset....

After a very cold night, running a fever and having that fever break sometime in the night in a puddle of sweat inside my sleeping bag, I woke to finalize my ride.  My cracking voice which I had lost the previous day told folks around me that I was in for the full meal deal.....their cross-eyed looks told me perhaps it was a bad idea....and the vibe stuck in my craw....

Returning to the rathole I'd dug myself the previous evening, I welcomed the first morning rays of sun glistening off my new and as of yet, untested XTR middle ring.  In addition to the sickness which left my lungs with some fluid in them, I was committing a cardinal sin by doing work on a bike before a race and not test riding it; I was pushing my luck.....perhaps I should have hydrated more the previous night....

Still vacillating as to where I would sign...short course or long....long course or short....my ego threw the gauntlet down on my own behalf and nutted up....hell, I've been through worse.....except for a DNF.....

Clawing up the 1200 vertical feet out of camp....fears came alive inside my mind.  My legs were tingling from the lack of oxygen which my buttered lungs were responsible for....I felt as if I was at 12000ft, and yet I was more than half of that in elevation.....DNF, DNF, DNF...the letters swirled around in my head....thoughts of taking a detour and a scenic route to work on photography played in my brain...I have a good excuse I reasoned to myself......

Taking a breather, contemplating my future fate; I thought of my time the previous year.  If I could match it or beat it by a bit...then I would have a good day.....this started the turn for me.....the views helped as well....

Somewhere between this last shot and the next shot.....I had a "come to buddha" conversation with myself which went something like this:  "Why are you bitching about your legs, your lungs and your insecurity about finishing....all you have to do is ride......you've been through worse, and fared better.....just pedal and stop thinking".  At which point, 90 or so minutes went by where I lost track of time....and just rode.  Not thinking about mileage, pain or time...I just stamped out miles.  And then I caught up to Jim and Nancy....which took me by surprise.  I had hoped to keep pace with them early in the race since they tend to drive strong all day...and so we rode together....and pounded food in combat food stops lasting no more than a minute where the only conversation piece centered around questions as to why I would haul the DSLR around on a race.....

....and yet no one questions it when I capture the stoke of another climb finished......

.....or the highland hills glowing gold in late autumn.  The soothing sound of grass blowing in the wind off of Mt. Wrightson cut into me all day...but I kept pedaling.

The beauty of narrow summer grass trench-work bordering the AZ Trail is positively exciting to a singletrack rider....the narrow tread gives one focus.....

......focus on threading the needle on a screaming descent and making mileage while the going is easy.....

Shots taken through this vertical expression of the suns energy, holding fast long after it's growth cycle, capture this focus.....

.....as well as the joy captured in carving some sweet singletrack....

But as all things must come to an end...so did my ride with Jim and Nancy who took to the final climb of the day on their Single Speeds and disappeared once again.  Joining up with another group...I captured some intensity and wonderment on one of the final climbs.......

Rolling into camp, I was surprised to find I beat my time from last year by 32 minutes.  Granted, I broke myself bad last year....but I wondered....what would have happened this year if I had been healthy?  I guess next year will decide that one......

Settling into the recovery period of my training, I spied a man who appreciates the oldie but goodie mindset.....

One of the two jerkoffs responsible for this mess celebrating and recovering.......

Recovery comes in all shapes, colors and IBU's.....another Kentucky Camp in the bag...

The Needful

Do The Needful; A mantra driven into me by the situation vs. my desires.  At times, I've felt the neeful tugging at me, tearing at me; forcing me from space to needful space.  It requires my presence, but not my mind. It's forced my being into the canyons and dark corridors of modern human procedure....but I've always managed a part of me soaring above it all for all but the briefest of moments....until the past month.  

I moved my home.  I have not moved in years....and one never knows how much crap they have...until they have to go digging in the dirt of a past left behind; estranged, embittered and incomplete.  After two weeks of the needful defined by a life now past; I put my foot down and drew up a plan for my needful.....

I can always count on the bike to take me away from the needful...and into my own needful.  In my new backyard, this means there will be more rocks and there will be climbs......long climbs....

Turning around, I admire the view of the needful I leave behind for a brief moment......

.......and focus instead of my needful which I seek.......a place exploding in life after a fall rain, reviving a beautiful carpet of green tearing into fractured rock, one season at a time.

The true needful looms on the skyline with the path etched in dirt far below.  As the sun crests the ridgeline, shadows highlight the growing shafts of sunlight, capping the tops of saguaro.

As many times as I've climbed this path...I never noticed someone else's needful, stamped into a chalkboard which will far outstrip in eons, the message which will last but for a moment.....I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless.

Breathing hard at the top of one pass....I stop and realize that I stand astride a dividing line.  To my back and west, the needful calls out in telephonic soundscapes, traffic noise and customer dissatisfaction.  To my east and in front of me....a barren land full of possibility, defined only by my needful.  The desire to reach out to the next ridgeline on the horizon....4-Peaks.....calls to me strongly.  If only I had the time....but I did once...and so I shall again.

Realizing the folly of my thoughts, I turn back to climb up another pass....stopping only to photograph the beauty of switchbacks traversing across the morning landscape.

Before the final descent back down into the needful, I appreciate my needful one last time....and promise that I'll be back soon.