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Friday, July 4, 2008

PLANTS AND BIKES
















As most of you know I like riding my mountain bike, and I just got a new one. When I write this blog I don't get into product review very much. I like to write about my experiences more than stuff. I leave the stuff talk for the store, but this bike is different. If I wanted to write a very boring blog I could tell you about every bike I have owned. My first bike, a Western Flyer, my first 10 speed, a Peugeot UO-8, my first real mountain bike, Treks first prototype mountain bike. I could go on and on. I put on my first shock at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Durango in 1990. I finished 12th in the Downhill. I got my first full suspension bike a few years later. It was a Trek Y bike. My new bike is different. It is a Trek Fuel EX 9.0. It works the way a full suspension is supposed to work. I goes up better, it goes on the flat better and it goes downhill better. What more can I say. I decided I needed to learn how to go down the whoops trail doing what it was designed for, (air) as opposed to me being afraid of every bump. I took out the new Trek and realized that this bike was designed for riding. No, my air isn't big, but I can flow down the whoops now. I went down Farewell Bend a couple of days ago. It felt like a different trail. This bike has 5 inches of travel. I can clear stuff going uphill I have never cleared. Going downhill you don't even notice the hard bits. I think it is cool that bike companies are really figuring out how to make full sus bikes, and I am glad I have been around to see it.


The other photo is really amazing. When you are out in the woods and see white blossoms everywhere, those are ceanothus blooming. You might call it snow brush or deer brush. This is best I have ever seen it. This photo was taken on Marazak in the old burn. As far as I could see there was white. Get up there and check it out. The whole forest smells of these blossoms. I think it is because the snow was on the ground for so long these plants had water until quite late. It is spectacular.
See you in the woods.
Don

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm a bit jealous that you have figured out a way to have a fabulous garden without doing any kind of digging or planting. While I (hidden behind the big tree in the photo) dig and compost and sweat in my garden at home, you are out enjoying Nature's wild garden from the saddle of your (new) bike. Damn -- I had no idea how smart you would turn out to be, all those years ago when I married you. I didn't even know you had bicycle disease at the time. To be fair, you didn't know I had gardening disease, either. Good thing we figured out the balance, eh? Long live the flowers and the humans who love them. Kathy