If you ride a bike . . .

[RHPConsult]

Since I’m visiting “Community” to wish Joe Boyd a “Happy Birthday”, I thought I’d bring you some items of personal interest from another front.

On Father’s Day, my eldest son gave me his journal of a bike tour he and his son (our middle grandson) had completed a couple of weeks ago, which mirrored a trek he, himself, had made with a 16 year-old middle-school pal (now the CEO of an enterprise in NY!) in 1972.

I – proud Dad and Grandad – thought it might make an interesting story for some of you. He posted his illustrated account on a site you might never have encountered unless you were looking for personal information on 7000+ bike trips taken by posters all around the world! The site is called Crazy Guy on a Bike dot com. Be sure to check the breadth of pages on this site, Amazing!

Check it out here, then be sure to look at the wide variety of other journals on the site

The second biking item of possible interest is about a:

• Race of 2,745 miles you’ve NEVER heard of
• Going on now in the US of A, from Roseville, MT to Antelope Wells, NM
• Lasting several weeks, non-pavement criss-crossing of the Continental Divide
• Documented on an interactive page on its web site so you can follow it
• Since it has no spectators
• It probably won’t make the pages of Sports Illustrated
• Even though it has total climbs of elevation exceeding 200,000 feet - yup that’s right

Here’s the tracking site of Ride-The-Divide. Be sure to read the other pages therein to appreciate the remarkable dimensions of this adventurous contest and the strength and endurance of its participants, who have NO crews, NO support staff, MUST BE completely self-sufficient throughout the entire course of the race. Whew!

BTW, the same guy has won it at least the last 8 years!

Be SURE to sample all the pages on this site . . . after noting that the leader is approaching New Mexico while one of the trailing contestants is still in upper Wyoming!

Ain't life interesting when you see the "depth" to which it is sampled?

[Xairbusdriver]

...I once had a bike...

[RHPConsult]

I'm sure you did, Capt'n!  

[Paddy]

Thanks for posting that, Dick (the ride diary - didn't get to the rest of it).

One of these days, we'll get ourselves back out to the OR/CA coast. I still haven't been back since we moved 13 years ago! It's a lot easier to go visit MA, which is where I'm off to next week.

[jcarter]

Oh, what beautiful pictures!  What fun!

 Ive driven that coastal road, but never biked out there, though our daughter and husband lived in Carmel for 2 years and did a lot of mountain biking. They had a video camera mounted on their helmet for part of the trip, but it made me seasick to watch it, too much motion. Stills are the only way to take pix like that.

Last August on Killington mountain in VT, we saw some kids biking down the ski trails. They rented special bikes there with HUGE disc brakes. There were signs so the guys couldnt get onto the dangerous trails.  Our grandson was just drooling to try it, but he was only 10 at the time. Maybe when he gets a bit older?  

Im too old for this stuff now, but we love biking around Cape Cod close to home. Not hilly.
Thanks for posting this, I will show your pictures to the kids when they get home from sailing in Washington state.
Jane

[RHPConsult]

And don't forget to show them all the nooks and crannies of this site, too.

Humbling, to say the least.

Both of our sons (in their 50s) have now made the trip with their respective offspring. We have a place on the beach in Santa Barbara county, so it gives them a tangible goal.

One of those "children" aspires to more . . . he came in 14th a few weeks ago in the Mt. Hood hill climb – after leading the pack up to within minutes of the finish. And, he won the "Mt. Everest Challenge" race last year in the Sierras - 150 miles over 2 days with a vertical assent exceeding 29,000 ft. He'll be teaching ESL in Spain next academic year, so we expect to hear about more and serious racing!