Avoiding it…

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Oh I love the MTB life metaphors; I was rolling along down Kessell Run this morning and I got to thinking…

We get a bit of traffic here in Fruita these days and there’s more than just the locals riding these trails. I was rolling pretty good down the epic twist and turns of Kessell Run; smiling at the challenge of holding your speed and holding the line at the same time. The joy of Singletrack riding lies in that balance; of course you could get  down the trail faster if you just descended the road next door, but thats kinda not the point, to hold every turn and rail every corner without error; thats the joy of riding the skinny wonderland we call singletrack…

As I’m relishing in my speed and the tremendous corning footing of my Edge Cycle 29er; I’m suddenly alarmed, I grab a gand full of brake and square up in a full body tensed up panic and its all I can do to hold the trail. I’m a bit shocked; I have railed this trail so many times, heck I BUILT this trail, since when do I loose the line? So I go back and of course erase my errant tire track as we do and look to see what the heck happened. Here’s the rub… theres a little one inch tall rock in the trail, seems that the thousand riders a head of me deemed that rock too big to ride over so they rode out and around it. As they "re-established" the line; or let me correct myslef… as they "un-established" the trails world famous flowing serpantine line, they took the trail out around this little rock and thus utterly destroyed the flow for the next 17 turns by avoiding this and altering the line. Altering meaning, ruined, and although I’m sure there was some rational of "a better line" its net effect was anything but… I shook my head, realizing that I am now at the mercy of the ethical integrity of mountian bkking as to how these trails will last or not last in the future, I rode on…

I got home and checked my face book; I had some messages… one was from a "un-adoring anti-fan"; I have a few of those. I’m pretty strong willed and pretty out spoken and I hope very positiver and kind, but theres those who are bristled by me and make it a life theme to carry this as their banner. Sometimes its more fun to be anit-somehting than it is to be about somehting, especially if "about something" is seemingly unavailable. I harkened back to the thoughts i had as I continued down the legendary run of Kessell; "why do people avoid mountain biking in the name of mountian biking"? Why do people avoid obstacles in general? I suppose its fear of getting hurt or its making the journey smoother. There are certianly times that this is the right thing to do; but it seems almost ironic in Mountain Biking as the obstacles are what we are there for; its all that keeps us from being "dirty road bikers" (not that i’m not that too). I thought about psychology as I often do; I thought about people who have a rocky view of their lives and wish they could avoid the path head or the image of themselves that they fear. It breeds hatred of others and a bitterness for "why they dont get outa my way". IT makes us have a false feeling of "things could be better is only…" I find myself looking at my life sometimes, mayeb even beset with some rocks and I say… "this is where i am and this is what I have to work with. I’m gonna take the hit and ride the trail ahead and try not to let it take me off line or cause me to fall." I square my shoulders, elbows out and brace for the hit… as I reach the point of impact, I feel the bike lift up, my front tire recoils from the impact and I know that if panic had won out I would be errantly on the brakes and I would loose my balance. But I didn’t brake, I braced, and as I feel the bike rise I rise with it, going with the flow. I’m relaxed and ready and in proper position rather than one of avoidance; I follow the front tire and the bike lofts into the air over this obstacle… suddenly what was a problem becomes a joy, what was to me a threat has become a jump and I feel the beauty of flight on my bike as I roll onward down the flowing trail with no loss of liner and no loss of momentum.

I will  note this lesson in my life and in my riding, let it roll, prepare yourself rather than plan an avoidance. The rocks are the fun of it and theres always a line through them

Ride the line

Keep Singletrack Single

Thanks for reading