Saturday, February 09, 2008

One Of "Those Rides"


<===The bike that was responsible for all this fun.
Ever had one of those rides where the more you got into it, the more fun you had? A ride where you cleaned an obstacle, then felt like you could do better, and you do?
That pretty much was my commute to and from work on Friday. I dug the Dos Niner (literally) out from the deep recesses of my basement Lab and aired up the tires for the ride in yesterday. Then it was off to see how much of the recent snow I could plow through. The first check comes at a dead end to a seven foot high embankment to a four lane highway crossing. When it is dry, you jump the curb at speed and roll it up to the top. By the time you reach the highway, you've scrubbed enough speed to safely get a look both ways before crossing. When it is snowy? It is a tough little steep, especially with the man-made car snow berm at the top.
Well today I shifted into a lower gear and nearly clawed my way through. That was encouraging. Across the highway the snow was deeper in spots, even though I had a lone snowmobile track to follow. It was unrideable the day before on another bike. This time I cleaned the whole thing, sawing the handlebar back and forth at times, the bike swapping ends at others. It sort of reminded me of things I've seen surfers do.
The rest of the commute was much the same. In another snow field crossing, I was roosting snow and having so much fun I almost let out a "whoop!" You never know how much longer a magic ride like that will last, and I was sorry to finally roll up to work. After work though, I had much the same ride in reverse, so that was a bonus.
Anyway, it was so much fun I couldn't stop thinking about it for hours afterwards. It was just one of "those rides". The kind that make you keep reaching for more and more.
Hopefully one of "those rides" are coming your way soon!

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