Ride to Ride
Until recently I had always put my mountain bike on the car, driven my car, then gone riding. It occurred to me that it was a bit strange to place one mode of transportation on top of another in order to then use the first mode of transportation. Why didn’t I ever just ride to ride instead of driving to ride? In response, I’ve made a pseudo-pledge this summer to try to “ride to ride.” So far, I’ve done it three times, and although it takes more time and effort, it’s been rewarding.
The best instance occurred yesterday, when I rode with a friend up to a local trail called the “Whoopdee Ride”. Getting to the ride involved a 45-minute intense hill climb on a super-steep road. As we were climbing and I was cursing my friend, the hill, and everything else, another rider came down the hill. Evidently, he had also climbed from town to ride the Whoopdee. As he blew by he shouted, “Hey, good for you, another Super-Whoopdee rider.” This one passing comment made the entire climbing agony worth it for me. I’d never heard of a “Super Whoopdee” rider, but at that moment it felt good to be one.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Outdoor Sport, Sustainability, Personal Reflection, Who We Are. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
So true…I live right near Forest Park and wonder why so many drive up the hill with their bikes rather than just ride the extra miles of flats and enjoy the warmup and cool-down?
June 21st, 2007 at 12:02 am
hell yeah!
That is a big irk of mine about this town.. it takes a 30min DRIVE to get to some decent singletrack. I guess I could ride but sheesh, I’m not that tough! That said I don’t own a car and ride everywhere. For example tomorrow I will ride my tallbike with chariot in tow 5 miles to work, 3ish miles to a wedding, then 5 miles to the reception carrying the bride and groom in the chariot, then back home 7 miles away. Bikes are fun!
June 21st, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Singletrack is soo far away from Portland-the bike friendly town that I have to drive there. Open Forest Park to singletrack and I will not have to drive!
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:45 am
It just feels good to get there (wherever there is) by your own two legs. (Ever run for transportation?) But I have to admit that sometimes, to really get off the grid and explore, you need to throw the bike on the top of the rig and get a little lost.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:53 pm
see also:
http://www.weirdnewstoday.com/uploaded_images/fitness-escalator-798427.jpg
ha.
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I recently found this Youtube video from some uninformed idiot who claims that bikes are just as much to blame for global warming as cars are!!!?
Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NGrhKmoL2A