‘… even if it don’t make a damn bit of sense.’
So, … there I was, as high up the Middle Cottonwood trail as you can get. With my bike.
There I was, wondering just what I had gone and gotten myself into – with it all reminding me of a particularly endearing point made by Augustus McCrae in the cowboy epic, Lonesome Dove.
“’Well, that’s where we started for,’ he said. ‘Me and Call have always liked to get where we started for, even if it don’t make a damn bit of sense.’”
It was beautiful up there. And, despite my misgivings, it was – probably – exactly where I set out to go. Probably, if I felt like being honest with myself ...
I had set out to get further up the trail than I had been before, and to maybe snag a photo or two of riding with a Stone Hound hip pack. Easy enough, right?
It was a perfect autumn day, plenty of sun but still cool. Excellent riding weather. Maybe even a little too good?
Because, when it came time to getting turned around and descend what I had climbed, I just kept going. Kept going until I ran out of mountain to climb.
It was too pleasant of a day not to.
While the view was stellar, my confidence was not.
Usually with this sort of adventure, fitness gives out before bike handling skill. On this jaunt, somewhere along the way I had carried my bike into terrain I wasn’t so sure I could ride. I didn’t seem to have noticed either.
But, as mentioned, I was probably a bit distracted – much like Gus, I too overly enjoy to get where I’m going.
So, I hadn’t let myself much choice, but to hop on the bike and see how it would go.
Some of it went well enough.
And some of it felt like it was the first day I’d ever ridden that bicycle.
With all the loose talus on the trail the back wheel kept want to slide out and around – like it really wanted to be the front wheel. It wasn’t easy to wrangle. And it was hardly even any easier to walk down. With a bike.
I managed to ride maybe half of the uppermost section, or back to the point in the trail where the riding really made sense again. It felt ridiculous, but adventurous.
Back down on more hospitable parts of the trail, it was fast and fun slash through some fantastically fall-colored foliage. It was awesome. You know, the sort of riding that doesn’t beg the question, “Why?!”
All in all, … None of this might have made that much sense, but it was exciting and I did manage to snap a couple photos.
And, of all the things I worried about, the hip pack wasn’t one. That feels like it should count for something.
