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....