Phil's Trails: Wherever you go,
there you are.
Despite Kristin Butcher’s insistence that water is for sissies, or perhaps because I, Uma, Sissie Girl Extraordinaire, actually like water, I thought this was a most excellent idea worth repeating. Those fine folks at Swobo are on it, I tell ya. Check it!
Speaking of Swobo, Stevil posted a note I sent in about, oh… this n that. When he includes me in his random assortment of musings and goings on, I feel a bizarre mixture of elation and pride but also a bit like being caught with my pants down. After all, this is a boy’s sport, right? Right?! Pardon my French Canadian here people, but EFF THAT, EH?!
From the past few years of road racing in Oregon, and having done no small amount of advocacy and promotion of the sport to women, I can safely say, at last in Oregon there are A LOT of women who ride bikes. Urban riders, commuters, racers, and yes, dirty girls. Colorado is the same: large turnouts of women riding bikes, both in groups and solo.
There aren’t so many who actually put riding in the center of life who aren’t professional racers. For most people (men and women) cycling is a “leisure activity”, not an essential daily activity. For me, life just isn’t right without my frequent and intense doses of Vitamin Bike. My yoga students and peers look at me strangely when I arrive at work Monday mornings, preaching health and wisdom through the gospel of yoga, sporting deep bruises and rock rash. They all consider me “extreme”. Haha. Me! Extreme. As if…
I’m not extreme as much as I’m passionate about cycling, and that’s what perplexes people. How can a woman be passionate about cycling in any form? Shouldn’t we be baking cookies or something? Oh sure, you can argue times have changed and it’s not like that anymore, but from my most decidedly female perspective I can assure you, it is. That is to say, guys love having rad women friends to ride with, but if you are even just a little bit “intense” (read: passionate) about it, the reality is you become “one of the guys”, sorta. You are no longer seen as a woman. This is great if you just want riding buddies. Notsomuch if you’re single and want a radtarded BF on a bike. if I can ride Moab like a freak, why can’t the guy bake cookies?
I’m not complaining. Okay maybe complaining a little bit. But not really. But sorta. You know, I don’t really have time for this. The trails right now are buff and beckoning, but first…
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Another one who’s pretty passionate about cycling isBrian Vernor (creator of cyclocross cult classic film Pure, Sweet, Hell) who just made another cycling film called Where are You Go?
According to filmmakers: Traveling over 70 miles per day, the film crew joins over 50 racers and expedition riders on the Tour d’ Afrique, the world’s longest bicycle race and expedition. Where Are You Go captures the 7,000 mile expedition as an adventure full of play and mysterious beauty, and is a testament to the endurance of human curiosity.
I so badly want to do a HUGE bike tour like this, but not so much the Tour d’Afrique. I have my sights set on India. But one thing the past few weeks have revealed just being on the road in the U.S.: Solo travel makes it hard to film, shoot and write in the moment. I’ll need a partner. And sponsors. So I’m putting it out there, into the universe slash internet. Who’s in? No, seriously. I’m serious. I never joke about big rides.
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Speaking of India, I suppose I should say something about yoga. Someone asked me why if I had made my second career in yoga (my first was in publishing) I was blogging about bikes so much and not about yoga. And the truth is, when most people think yoga they think poses. They think sweaty workouts with pop music. Or they think sitting in Lotus Pose chanting OM. Whatever people think yoga is is exactly what it is… For them. I cannot say what it is for anyone else. But I can say that the Big Picture Yoga has nothing to do with incense or lycra shorts from Lululemon, or perfect handstands. It’s not something that can be done, or worn, or taught or purchased. It’s an internal atmosphere of being totally alive in the moment. I still have a regular practice, but it is not spectacular, it won’t win any “yoga competition” awards, and in fact the physical practice has become less, not more impressive. But it’s my quiet moments–precious, silent, still moments that no one else sees or even guesses at–where I find this connection to what’s alive in me.
In other words: I AM blogging about yoga.
Lately, the moments when I find my ‘yoga’ connection strongest is on bike. Or rock climbing. Or driving thousands of miles to arrive… here… now.
In Bend.
*sigh* I drove 4000 miles last month just to find singletrack nirvana right here in Oregon. To celebrate, me and some friends are doing a little full moon night ride this Friday. I called it the first annual, because, well… that’s how I roll.
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If you’re still with me, and interested in cycling, and interested in what defines “epic”, and what one should wear or ride on said epics, check the Bike Snob official analysis results. They’re not fixed. (snicker)
I lived in Fruita years ago. Visited friends and rode old familiar trails there last week, in fact. Rode lots on the GJ side of the valley (awesome), Moab, Durango, etc., when I lived there.
It’s great, but Central Oregon is just as good. Maybe better as the variety of riding is increasing. We all too often overlook our own backyards.