I wanna REALLY be in my own head when I am riding and let's be honest here I need every extra breath I can get while being physically active. It gives me a chance to expel some of my inner demons for a little while and sing songs in my head to myself. Someone talking to me and expecting a conversation in return is going to be disappointed in my behavior during a ride. I'm looking at the trail and doing my thang. I'm not opposed to trail side conversations or even post ride chit-chat. During a ride not so much. I'm a soul rider and a majority of the time a sole rider.
I was at a local trail that I frequent a bit more often now. I'm a different person and a bit of an enigma I suppose. My bikes have gotten a fair amount of attention because I suppose they're not what you see normally at the trail head or on the trail. Which is normal for a MTB type to notice what the other person is riding. I tend to keep to myself, I'll be friendly when approached at the trail head or trail side and carry on a conversation.
I was JRL (just riding along) when I passed a couple of guys. They said Hello and I returned the greeting. As I was riding past one said "Oh wow a voodoo" to which I replied "Steel is real!" I then went into the big ring to get some momentum before the next climb. Imagine my surprise when I hear someone flying up behind me and saying something a couple of minutes later. It was one of the guys I just passed trail side. I did not stop then because I did not want to carry on a conversation. I'm not being snobby I am just wanting to ride. This rider who caught up to me (it's not that hard to do) is wanting to talk. He says he owned a voodoo way back when and how they were nice steel frames. It sounds like he knows a bit and I would have loved to talk to him about it, problem is that I'm riding.
He tells me he saw me the other day on another section of the trail and that he's ridden every day for the last week. He seems like a generally interesting dude and could probably grind me into paste. My convo is minimal because I'm riding and not blabbing. I'm not in as good of shape as this guy I need all my lung capacity. We come to a fork in the trail, I decide that I'm going to go on the side of the fork that he is NOT going because I want to ride and not chat. He says he's going one way and I tell him "See ya later bro."
I got the distinct feeling that he thought I was snubbing him. I wasn't, so it goes.
I get chatted up a little at the trail head. I had one dude who I have seen a fair amount ask me how many bikes I own. Which oddly enough I ALWAYS have to think about, which is five. Not bragging if it was not for my short stint in a couple of different bike shops then It would probably be two. I'm reluctant to swill beer at the trail head because I'm not sure about the locals even though I've been going there long enough to be considered local now myself. Beer tends to make you wanna hang out after a ride and chat. Alcohol is funny that way.Besides that it's a hassle and expense to stop by the store and buy beer on top of that I can't keep it at any of the places I live at because any alcohol despite a minimal consumption is frowned upon. This is not about my personal beer deficit though. Let's move onto the weather shall we...
Today has a lot of promise. For all my moaning and complaining about Georgia I can't complain about the December weather at the moment:
As opposed to the old 303 area code:
I'll wrap up here I'm going to head back to the trail and ride the kona today. Thanks for reading.
Oh I forgot my holiday greeting:
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