Nice 'tude, bro

So. Your spirit animal must be the Plastic Bag Caught In A Tree or the Roadside Empty Budget Beer 24oz Can, I guess.


Regardless, there was singlespeeding yesterday in Santa Cruz. I don't know if you've ridden there, but it stacks up against anyplace you have ridden and called "the Greatest Place I've ever Ridden!" It really is world _ucking class. I went up there with a fella I had met a total of one times, and who's been agitating to ride. And he's from the East Coast, so his demeanor is a little...pushy. (Don't get all puffed up, you know it's True.) And he insisted he knew the trails real well, having lived up there for a couple years, several years ago. And he didn't want to ride the trails I suggested, but said he knew these trails in _____ ______ that were great, and could be linked to UCSC for a real Good Time. And I have very limited experience with those trails, and new trails knowledge is always welcome.

So we rode there. And ran into a ranger right away- who was incredibly cool and friendly and insisted that the area was closed to bikes. And then we took a trail straight down the hillside and crossed a creek to pathless forest. And then we bushwacked up the steep loose hillside, because he knew the trail was right above us. And then we bushwacked back down the steep and slippy hillside to the creek and crossed back over.

At this point I was finished with the bushwacking to nowhere. I don't know how much bushwacking you've done, but I have done a lot. A Lot. I will readily admit to being lost at least 1 in 5 times I go out. As the King of Being Lost once said to a group of us, "That's Naural Style! It's how you learn!" The fact that he said this while attempting to stop (my) fancy fixxie on a dime and repeatedly crashing it merely lends more gravitas to the axiom. When we did our tour as ski bums, getting lost in the trees was the only way to find the secret=awesome private powder stashes. Sometimes you'd get hung up in tree wells or just beat your way through willows to more bushes, and other times you'd pop out in a secret spot no one had tracked. It's an Adventure.

There will come a time when you either find it or you don't, though. A time at which, there is no sense in throwing good effort after bad, so to speak. And we had reached that point. We discussed, and he wanted to push further downstream to the end of the sandbar/sound of the chainsaw. I agreed, and we ended up sneaking out behind some houses and getting back on track. Could have been better, but that is how you learn...

This fella wants to ride a secret spot around here that I know well. And, I will probably take him. He had respect. East Coastliness aside (and it is just a cultural difference in manner, not a lack of manners) he had asked what I thought about taking the known trail (middling fun) or the potential bushwack (huge fun, if it worked out), he didn't just ride ahead and make choices. Although, asking me if I think we should take the road less traveled is like asking Polly if she wants that cracker.