A Bicycle Love Story

So way back in the 80's when I was in grad school I lived in the the tiny town of Oxford, OH. I met my kids father there, and when we met I was shocked and and apalled that he didn't have a bike, as Oxford was the perfect place for biking, both as recreation and just for getting around town. So I cajoled him into a buying a bike so we could ride together. He went uptown to "The Bike Center" and bought a nice red Nishiki, a nicer bike than the one I rode in the color I always wanted my bike to be. I still have never had a red bike... **sniff**

Fast forward to 'now'. I live way out west in Utah. I am divorced. My ex never really was as interested in biking as I am, so he left his bikes behind when he left. My 23 year old son however, is into bikes, and bike building and repairing, so he recognized that the old bike of dads was actually a nice, quality old bike. So last spring he pulled it out of the crawlspace and hauled it back to Durango, CO where he attended college.

This weekend when I was in Durango for his graduation he asked me to take his dads bike back home, since it's winter and his house is tiny (really tiny). As we go to wrangle the bike out of his overcrowded entry way, I ask about the 3rd bike in the pile, a gray Trek, probably from the '90's, which I did not recognize. Turns out it was his girlfriend Alicia's... then he gets excited...

"But get this mom, you know how dad's bike came from Oxford? It still has "The Bike Center" sticker. Look at Alicia's bike... it's from "The Bike Center" too... it has the exact same sticker."

So you have to be kidding me! Sure enough both bikes are labeled exactly the same. I asked where she got her bike, and it turned out she had bought it used, there in Durango. So what is the chance that two old bikes from the tiny town of Oxford, Ohio would come to live together in the same tiny house in Durango, CO? Kind of a bike "love story" of sorts! Two bikes, from a sleepy little Ohio town, travel the west to, decades later, be united 1400 miles from home in Durango, CO!

More from Moab....

A lovely Prickly Pear Cactus flower

A few more photos from my Moab adventure. In case a 20 mile mountain bike ride wasn't enough, after our ride a bunch of us headed out to Corona Arch. Not a very long hike, only about 3 miles round trip, just enough the work the kinks out of cycling fatigued legs, a perfect apres-biking activity! Corona Arch is one of the areas most spectacular arches, which recently received much notoriety by climbers who turned it into the world's largest rope swing. A climber rappelled down from the arch as we hiked up and one too scared to rappel down up was still perched on top, and there were others hiking out who had claimed they had just finished doing the swinging thing. Sadly, all this adventure activity may well lead to the demise of this magnificent arch, and the holes from the bolts used to secure the ropes will likely catch water and freeze in the winter, eventually cracking and collapsing the arch. I kind of wonder how these climbers decide the bolts are really still secure enough for these activities. It seems like a real "leap of faith" to me! On Sunday we headed out with our bikes again.... this time to Dead Horse Point State Park where we road the 9 mile Big Chief loop. Loads of fun, not too tough a trail, but being the rock virgin I was prior to this weekend some spots were still a little challenging to me. Totally amazing views!!!!

Corona Arch

Bowtie Arch

Corona Arch

Spotted Leopard Lizard

The views from Dead Horse Point

Memorial Day Moab Adventures

I spent Memorial Day weekend adventuring in Moab with friends and friends of friends. The weekend started kind of rough, as when we arrived early Saturday we were greeted by a massive windstorm, 40 MPH plus winds pelting us with sand, filling our tents, our eyes and ears... made for a fairly miserable afternoon climbing around on the nearby cliffs. But by night time the winds calmed down, ushering in beautiful weather for the rest of the holiday weekend.

The gang... ready to roll!

Mountain biking was on the weekend adventure. I have not done a ton of mountain biking. My bike is a 16 year old hardtail, bought when my kids were young so I could ride trails with my son. We did a few such rides with the kids but it has mostly been in recent years that my bike has been getting used as it should, mostly on moderate single track trails here in the Wasatch. This weekend was first attempt at Moab style mountain biking.

Gemini Bridges

Slickrock!!

The plan was to bike the Gemini Bridges trail, a 16 mile ride starting a short distance from our campground. That "short distance" proved not too short, it ended up being a bonus 4.6 miles, all up hill, to get the Gemini Bridges road. The trip to the bridges was fairly easy, downhill on a jeep road. Then the fun began, we did a few sections of the Magnificent 7 single track trail. This is were the real challenge started for me. I've never ridden slickrock, so I had no idea what obstacles where ride-able, and which would require a dismount. After a bit of riding I did start to get the feel for what I could do, and what the bike could tackle. I surprised myself by going up over rocks I never thought I could clear, and dropping over ledges and stairsteps. I have to say mountain biking the rocky single track had to be the most mentally exhausting sport I've ever done, I really had to concentrate on the rugged terrain, as I really didn't want to crash on the rocks.

Arths Corner Trail - follow the yellow slash trail!

After about 4 miles of the challenging for me slickrock single track, and a short slog through deep sand, we ended up back on the road, where toward the end we got challenged by a long steep upgrade, one where at every turn in the road you joyfully think "this must be it", only to find yet more hill ahead. I didn't make it quite to the top, at some point I had to do a little "hike-a-bike". After reaching the top, the trip down to the main road where our shuttle awaited proved to be equally challenging. It was steep and rocky enough that it required pretty constant braking and attention to rocks and gravel, so even though it seemed like it should be a coast, it was really work too.
It was quite a day for me. 20 challenging miles on the bike, amazing dessert scenery, and my first ever slickrock biking experience. I loved it ... there will be more!

Yeah, this was a killer hill, both up, and down!

Autumn in Utah ...

... Autumn has been spectacular... Some photos from a couple of weekends ago, when I took a couple of hikes and a great mountain bike ride which was as my friend Joe says, "Riding the leaves and shooting the yellow tube"

4th of July Weekend....

Saturday I went out with the mountain bike group for my first ride of the year. We road Pipeline trail out, which, by mountain biking standards is a relatively mellow trail; fairly flat, not too technical. I pretty such suck going up the big, steep uphills, and the big steep downhills can be a little scary, so for me this is an excellent ride. I did manage to successfully ride a few "technical" spots that are challenging to me so I was pretty pleased. I love this picture that Mike, one of the group organizers (and coach, cheerleader and total enthusiast) took. It really makes mountain biking look like, well, MOUNTAIN biking. I am the middle rider.


Sunday was spent at a creek side picnic with a friend. We were supposed to join other friends at the beach at Pineview Reservoir, but were turned away, for crowd control reasons by a cop doing his best "Dirty Harry" imitation. So we found a lovely picnic spot instead.


So the weird thing about Utah ... 4th of July fireworks are held on Saturday the years the 4th falls on a Sunday. No one here seemed to get the message about "separation of church and state". Two exception (that I know of)... the Salt Lake Bees has a big fireworks display after their July 4th game, and The Country Club did theirs on the 4th. Luck for me I get a great view of The Country Club's fireworks from my deck.

How I'm spending my summer vacation...

What summer vacation? As a working person, summer's not much different than winter, or spring or fall. But the day's are longer, giving us more time to recreate outdoors, so I'm trying to take advantage. The "new" thing I've been doing more of this summer is mountain biking. I've had a mountain bike for 10 or 15 years, but admit that it has rarely hit the dirt, with a few exceptions I've mostly putzed around the streets with it. Last year a girlfriend of mine took up mountain biking in a pretty serious way, and she's often looking for someone to bike with (or babysit while she bikes). So I have been actually getting out on the trails this year, and really enjoying it. We haven't been going terribly far, as her 10 year old daughter tends to pace our travels, but we've been on some hills and rocky trails. Last night a group of us, my friend, her daughter and two former students from the lab, went out and had a great time. The uphills, especially when rocky, are hard for me, but it sure is a good work out. And I did do about as well as my 26 year old friends (that or they were just being nice to the old lady!) so I was pleased. And I'm actually starting to get the hang of the rocky down hill sections; they are not nearly as terrifying as they were the first few times I went out. Now I'm starting to wonder why I didn't go out mountain biking more in the past. Perhaps having enthusiastic friends to go with makes the difference. We're going to try to have regular weekly rides for the rest of summer. Who knows, maybe it will even help loose the extra weight that makes the uphills hard. Now if I can only start getting myself to start biking to work....