Realization

http://picasaweb.google.com/srussel459/MidJunemtnBikeFromJeffsHouseUpKingsCanyonAndDownAshCanyon
Jeffs pics...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/facilitybikeclub/sets/72157605754617891/

1/2 mile short of 36 miles and 8 minutes short of 5 hours....J-mo like a lot of people who live where they have lived most of their lives started to realize he hasn't done some of the bigger climbs around the area from bottom to top. When I lived near DC I almost never went to some of the greatest museums in the world. I scraped the surface so to speak. I won't bore my small readership with directions and details other than we started at Jeff house at 9am and ended at his house around 4.30ish pm. We climbed high enough to see Lake Tahoe and then around a bit and down a Canyon that is a part of our lunchtime rides. At the top of this Canyon on our descent it was so steep some of us experienced brake fade and we could smell our discs/pads overheating. A couple of hikers congratulated me on making the final hill before you make a short descent to enter the Flume Trail. When I told them I had climbed from Carson City they seemed to look semi-impressed. For fit riders this isn't such a big deal but I know some fit folks who might have hesitations at a 5 hour ride with 4 of it climbing. Ryans girlfriend Christine was tough as nails. Since I know them the least I ended up in nice conversations during portions of the climbs only to realize she was setting a nice pace. At one point 3/4 of the way thru the hardest climbing...the point in which little hills seems to take a lot out of you.... I was chatting with Ryan and Christine was in front grinding these climbs out and instead of soft pedaling on the rest parts you could hear the clunk clunk noise of her shifting to harder gears. She's got hammer in her blood. Probably comes from hanging around Ryan. In summary it was nice to do this suffering with this group of people. No mechanicals, no whining and just a sense of being lucky to have such nice surroundings to suffer in. Now that's it's done I don't ever remember suffering. Oh that's right...I just got the feeling back in my big toe. Gotta stop mashing and start spinning. Now when people say they climbed Kings Canyon to Spooner, up to Marlette over Sunflower Pass and down to Hobart and finally back down Ash Canyon, those of us who have never done it will have a response. And 1 final realization. I can still ride a mtn bike. I was starting to wonder. I gave myself an early Bday present with this simple realization.

Thanks Lester, Ryan, Christine and J-mo..

Thoughts

Not exactly my thoughts but I read something in Bike magazine that actually wasn't the usual bike related boring bullshit. Mike Ferrentino wrote a nice article entitled, 'killing time'. In it he quotes Eckart Tolle...This is the quote that sums up everything to me....'To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and the future for your fulfillment'....Holy heck! How could all my random thoughts be summed up in 1 sentence. This article is from the June issue. I don't think I can add anything to this other than a deep sense of identifying with that 1 idea.

Jim @ Jackie G

http://picasaweb.google.com/srussel459/JimJackiesHouseAndOtherRelatedPics

This is a short story complete with pics of one of my circles of friends that I'll call Jim/Jackie....

This story starts of with Joe...I met Joe thru Joe who used to date and is now married to a roommate of mine back in the 90's...Both Joe's are bicycle folks and both still race. Joe #1 turned 50 this year and he's still at it. Joe #1 also turned into a good close friend and mentor to all things bicycle. Good friends tend to have other good friends which is where Jim comes into the picture. Jim started to ride bicycles with us and since he lived at the bottom of a mtn it was always climb 1st. I can remember him slumped over the handlebars at the top of the climb on our 1st ride together. I'm not sure if he vomited but it was close. I don't seem to remember him complaining though. Skip forward a few rides and he was good to go. Eventually his inner circle started riding and he kinda become the unspoken leader. He was the 1st to jump in and fix a problem for his friends to the point that I still don't think they know how to fix a chain. Many times I can recall thinking someone was gonna have to walk out of the woods from a mechanical and somehow Jim fused a rock with a stick and got the bike going enough to get home. Jim is also a lover of ALL things nature so if you're riding behind him and a new flower/bird/bug/tree catches his eye..get on both brakes. He eventually established a ride mostly on Wednesdays. For that ride all you needed to show was a 6 pack and 2-3 bucks for the pre-cooked Lidos pizza. After pizza and a beer Jim and the boyz would play music(see pics). After Jim/Jackie got their youngest son Jimmy into college they decided to travel since Jackie is a nurse and can find work anywhere. Since they were just getting their feet wet and weren't sure of places they might like to settle they offered me an opportunity to house-sit for them. I had recently moved back to Maryland and wasn't sure of anything so an opportunity to live at their place and be close enough to my mom AND afford rent was perfect. I really didn't pay rent in a sense. Containing 6 acres is not as easy as it sounds. I learned to drive a old, big tractor so I could bushhog a field. I must say this tractor is etched in my mind. I was always worried that #1 it would stop running or #2 it would tip over. I learned to use the barn for 4 days when the septic system got too filled with shit. It wasn't my fault.I learned that I like hotubs. I learned that if you're 90+ and still help shovel your own driveway your're tougher than I'll ever be.(thanks Mattie) I learned if you buy the wrong cat food they may turn to rabbits instead. I learned that teenagers can at times test your nerves but are mostly lovable. The extreme swings of a teenager is what sticks with me..predictable yet unpredictable..responsible yet irresponsible..I learned a phrase that I'll never forget...'Am I naked'! (Thanks Jimmy)....I learned that I can't or don't want to learn how to play drums yet I still like banging on them as long as I have headphones on(thanks Pete). I knew but witnessed that a house is nothing unless you fill it up with something. They filled it up with more than 1 thing but to me it was love and acceptance and like me they are picky about who gets close. Acceptance is not a given. (My personal thoughts are: I'll accept you but if you're cruel or mean you might get shunned or worse. They were actually more accepting than I think I am of others) I also received a new name during xmas 1 year during my watch. Honorary name(Scotty G) as in Griffin. I appreciate that. Skip forward a bit and they now live in Truckee and still rent their place in Maryland but for real money. I think its been too long since I've had a beer with them.

ps. I took my mother out to meet them shorlty before I starting living there and she was weak that day and didn't get out of the car. Jim and Jackie came up to us and talked as if they'd known her forever. I didn't get out of the driveway and mom looked at me and said, 'those are my kinda people'...Thats the short story of Jim and Jackie G as told by Scotty G.