Do More of What You Love

Huh, I'm a lot closer to this live buffalo than I was the dead snake. I realized that the way my body processes fear isn't always conducive to remaining alive and fully intact. Luckily the buffalo I ran into on my ride seemed to be fairly humanized and realized as my grandmother would say, "I'm not worth the effort."

He could definitely do a number on me

The snake I ran into though did warrant quite a fearful response. It might have been the biggest one I have ever seen while riding. Fortunately I was forewarned otherwise my shorts probably would have been wet and my bike might have been left on the trail as I ran away. The guy was riding up as I was going down, "There is a big ass snake in the middle of the trail, it's dead, really dead. I smashed it with a rock so it's definitely dead." Clearly his adrenaline was still pumping as he informed me the death status quite a few times. "Oh man, thanks for telling me, I'm deathly afraid of snakes so I probably would have peed my pants." I had just passed a point where you can hop on the road and ride back to the parking lot, which was less than a mile away. I decided to do that and not even mess with the snake so turned around and started hiking back up. Then a little voice inside my head starting talking, telling me that it was dumb to be afraid of something that is dead and not going to hurt you. I turned around to take a small step in facing my fears, it's dead, so a good place to start. I slowly began edging my way towards it, contemplating if I should climb up off the trail around it or go below it. If I went above I would be looking down on it, but if I went below it I might miscalculate and pop up right by it. I could run right by it on the trail, but there was a rock close by that I might accidentally stop on and my shoe could fall off and directly onto the snake...   

My roommate asked why I was so far away..

I kept crawling towards it when I heard some voices coming up behind me on the trail. Two men appeared and I told them there was a huge dead snake on the trail. One of the guys was as much of a girl about it as I was. The other guy got off his bike, walked over and yelled, "yep, it's definitely dead, its guts are all over the place, that rock really did a number." Then as the two of us squealed the guy picked it up and threw it off the trail into the bushes. Who knew my knight in shining armor would wear lycra. 

That was my second ride on my Remedy, both which happened at Hall Ranch. The first time I went with a guy who is an extremely skilled rider and luckily for me also very patient. Even though I had ridden the trail on my Supefly, having the Remedy was a whole different ball game. He was nice enough to help me work different lines and would wait while I tried sections again. The ride was completely awesome. The bike is outrageously fun to ride, all the time. The second time I rode it I had spent 5 hours prior getting dental work done, and still had a fantastic time. I had cracked a tooth while eating a jolly rancher for lunch and postponed getting it fixed because a.) it didnt' hurt and b.) I didn't want to give up ride time. Then about a week later I was eating a rice cake and the whole chunk fell off which

My remedy brings all the boys to the yard

sent me into quite the tizzy-fit. I knew I should have taken care of it sooner, obviously, but when it broke off I was pretty distraught. I'm rather fastidious when it comes to my oral health, once when I was 8 I had to go home from a slumberparty because someone started talking about gingivitis. I was able to make an appointment extremely early in the morning though so I still had lots of time afterwards to ride. My mouth was pretty tired and sore but it was still hard not to smile. 

I've still been doing rides on my road bike and Superfly. I took my road bike home this past weekend when I was up for Mary Clair's graduation. I always forget how much I love riding in the hills; the twisty roads, the one-lane bridges, the majestic scenery and the little traffic makes you really able to get away from it all. I ended up doing 50 miles without really planning it or consciously realizing how far I had gone until I had gotten home. 

In Boulder I'm still in awe of how many untapped trails and roads I've never been on even with living here for a year before. I rode Betasso the other day, a trail system almost in

This is what I've been missing?!?!

Boulder that I never once rode while I was living here. Wayne and I almost went once but then his seat fell off so we turned around. I had decided to finally ride it by myself and see what it was all about when I did the first section and a friend texted me to tell me he was on his way there and to see if I wanted to ride. It made me realize that you shouldn't wait for others, go where you want to go and the people who want to be there will meet you there.