Consistency?

So, what have we missed, oh yeah, the footage, most recently... I shot a lap at the local trail here with my helmet cam all strapped up nice and snug.
Here is the original trail in its entirety going both clockwise and counterclockwise, I will post the section that Sades and I built soon. As far as I know, I beat the lap record, going the fastest that anyone has ever gone on this trail with a blazing fast 3:56 on the first video! Chris had a time of 4:01 previously.

Joel and I have decided to start working on a documentary of our escapades of recent years as well as a way to provide insight to some of the current state of affairs in the cycling world and how it relates in a broader sense to the "American Dream." We are still only in the planning phase for this but I have high hopes for what we will achieve. Plus it seems like a fun thing to do anyway. Armed with a dream and a little common sense, it is amazing what you can accomplish.

Keep checking up because I will have more coming in the next few days.

A Few Thoughts From the Past Week

I've been taking a bit of a different route home allowing me to avoid most of ugly town and the 5 line highway that cuts through it. Its a bit longer, but it cruises through some suburbs and past a soap factory that always smells real nice - until I remind myself that I'm smelling rendered fat and spice... hah!

Paradoxically, while I absolutely live to ride, and love my commute I often spend time musing about the negatives of the system - the constent push for exponential industrial growth, the never ending pavement, the car culture, and the isolation from nature it all nurtures. I was reading a website the other day about this guys who not just commutes by bike, but does everything by bike; his website is an absolute resource, a treasure chest of articles on life, biking, and the minimalist culture I like to embrace. His prose is articulate, and the articles real poigniant. While I often embrace anger, his philosophy advocates a more neutral, proactive stance all the while not yielding an inch to the car culture. As I was reading his site, becoming more and more inspiried I noticed a blurb at the top of the page near the title; it read that the author, Ken Kifer had been killed on his ride home from work in Sept. 2003 by a drunk driver who had just left jail 4 hours ago. He was hit from behind, and the driver never even stopped to see if he was alright; he simply sped off in a drug induced tirade of ignorance. The driver was sentenced to just 20 years. I was stunned, and saddened. Ken was 59 years old and had been riding for longer than I've been alive, yet his life was taken, no. stolen from him in an instance by a drug using criminal driving a truck. Had that criminal been on foot nothing would have happened to Ken, but because our society so privelages the automobile, this criminal was allowed a microphone through which he physically vocalized his extreme idiocy. What a shame.

On a different note, because I ride a coastal trail part of my way home I often see people walking or biking, especially lately with the warmer weather. I make an effort to smile or wave to those who I pass, but rarely do I get any response. The general rule is that the nicer the clothes, the deeper the scowl I recieved. At the risk of sound un-PC (oh dear!) the least friendly are women in their 40-50s who are wearing either designer sports clothes or fancy city-style over coats and hats (whatever the hell that stuff is called), the deep frowns they give me seem to signify the following; "HOW dare you bike where we walk! It is bad enough we have to share the road with you, now we see you off the highway as well? Don't you know the extreme inconvienence it is to shave seconds off our trips by slowing our SUVs for a moment while we drive around you?"

I did have a pretty damn cool experience a few days ago riding home though. After passing the usual people, I came up behind a biker who was moving at a slower, but steady pace. As I passed, and my head back to wave I saw a young woman with downs-syndrome, she looked up at me smiled and waved back. Hardly no one does that. As I kept riding I was thinking about that girl and how great it was that she was out riding. In a society that would deny her all usual privelages, belittle her intellectual performance, and seek to label her condition as an undesireable disability, on her bike she is an equal. By riding she is free, can go where she may wish and will not be labeled by an social stigmas. Out there on that trail we were equals, just the way it should be. I hope to see her riding again sometime.

Weekend Update

This was one needed weekend. The past week found me a tired boy, deprived of sleep and stimulation at the office, so to have 2 days of blue sky on Sat and Sun was excellent. On Saturday I rode to Galby for 2.5 hours and did some of the upper trails which I haven't rode for a couple months. Things are drying out a bit, and I was able to get a good connection between my tires and the trail. It was warm, the sun was casting beams down in between the gaps in the tree canopy and I felt good. I did however ride a couple of the longer descent trails really hard and I feel it in my back today. It takes a lot of mental concentration, let alone physical, to successfully navigate the downhill singletrack at speed. I love it though.
Later Saturday evening Sabrina and I walked down to Applebees and had dinner. I've never been there before, but the food wasn't bad and the prices were ok. They have a few 3 course specials in the range of 10-13 bucks, so the price wasn't that bad for a nicer place.

Today, Sunday, we took a 3 hour walk around part of Whatcom lake. Again, the weather was beautiful and I even received a small tan on my face - no small feat for late January. The walk was nice, and the lake is beautiful but I was pretty disappointed about the fact that basically the entire huge lake is private property save a small public park. Is this right? Should people really be able to own all rights to a lake front, ocean front or any other area of recreation? I think Hawaii is pretty advanced in this regard since all beaches are public, no matter what resides behind the sand. But here, too see all these super rich people owning all access to this beautiful lake was disheartening. On the same note, its also a drag to see part of Galbraith being subdivised into million dollar houses too. While no trails are affected yet since they are deep in the mountain, it is a sure sign of car induced urban sprawl. People don't want to live in the cities so ironically they build houses in the woods therebye bringing what they wished to escape with them. Its not so noticeable in a remote place like Alaska, but here in Washington it sure is.

Here is a piece of a story I started writing a while back: The Life of Ants

Smart Trips

Bit of a crazy ride home tonight. Yesterday I was yelled at by a couple police men, and even saw a couple of them on bikes down an alley and they didn't look too happy. Granted I was riding like a lunatic on a whiskey run to a dry town, but oh well. They were upset that I was on the sidewalk. What luck! I only use one portion of the sidewalk my whole ride and it only lasts about 500 feet. Anyway, today I changed the route and rode with the 4 wheeled beasts, taking my rightful place in the lane. It was a bit hary flying downhill on a 5 lane one way road, but still fun. However my scare came at the last intersection before I hit the burbs. I stopped at the 4-way stop, with someone right behind me, and when I jumped on the crank to accelerate my chain snapped and I nearly ate my stem for dinner. Fortunatley I recovered and wasn't run over by the truck behind me. After the coast was clear I scampered into the road, grabbed my chain, dropped another link (gulp) and put it back on. Thats the second break in two months. Maybe I should stop accelerating like I'm racing Brian Lopes out of the gates in a World Championship 4X race.

On a pretty cool note, Sabrina and I signed up for a free program in Bellingham called "Whatcom Smart Trips", basically what you do is log into their website and plug in all the times you walk and bike instead of drive, if you commute not-by-car 10 times a month they send you a card which gives you nice discounts at everything from clothing stores, to food to bike shops. Cool! Also, they give away $250 every month in a drawing and $1000 every 3 months. Once I make 100 smart trips I get to choose from gift certificates to local stores, and at 250 trips I'll be deemed a Leader and given a special gift. I also get a free emergency taxi ride if I ever need one. So far I'm at over 60 trips from December and through January.

Bike Tales - Evening Commute

Alright! Its time for more bike tales! Get a cup of hot coco ready because this time its the evening commute - with pictures!

Evening Commute - Bike Tales