Bikes are ridden and there is muffled activity...

Dirt commute represent. Represent represent sent. Right?

I don't usually take that one cut through on weekends- cuz I'm mostly riding on the road (or driving) to get to work with more quickness- and while taking it today, I came across not only that one homeless guy I see every now and again (that I'm sure lives off that trail and who has shown himself to be careful and respectful) but an old guy who was hiking from Monterey to Carmel. He has a day in the woods, eats lunch in Carmel and then takes the bus back to Monterey. I like his style.

I was using a switch to clear a nuisancy stand of Poison Oak from the trail and he remarked that he'd brought his chainsaw up last week and sawed through some of the dead fall but had to stop mid cut on the last one from lack of gas. I replied that I appreciate his efforts (because I surely do- those were/are some thick logs) and did he know of any other good sneaks. I've got my eye on this one power line easement...but he didn't know of anything else.

image source: Golden Age Comic Book Stories

So yes, trail riding was _ucking _un _or sure. I like it. After work I climbed back up that one trail that I took yesterday on the way home. It is (read this in a high pitched voice:) steep! Like balancing act on the rivet steep. Take that saddle and stick it where the sun don't shine steep. And you know what?

I feel _ucking great!

In spite of this rib/hip B.S. (which is improving now that I'm doing my stretches and using the tennis ball and the foam roller again....you'd think I'd get it through my brain pan that this is required at this point in Life. But I have to learn the hard way.) I gots good legs and smooth lungs. I picked these things up bit by bit at the top of many many climbs. And it feels good. I like it. Summer is coming. It was shirt sleeves all evening. That feels good, too.

The owls were hooting.

Do you know what else? As I was riding through that neighborhood to get up the hill to the trail, I noticed a park that lay at the top of several acres of wooded drainage which cries out to have a singletrack through it. This dirt commute business depends on multiple small-but-worth-it sections of trail; if we can keep adding a bit here and a bit there it really extends the dirt portion of the commute. And that's a Good Thing. All it takes is someone taking the time to lay it in...

I am hereby decreeing a Crusade:
All of y'all extend the dirt options where you are.

Do it.

Do it.

Do it.