DOH DEUX!

If it were not for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. As fate has had it before and will surely have it again, mechanical difficulties were abundant today. While commuting to work, away from my dog and comfortable domicile, I had not pedaled 20 feet from my drive way when I felt something was a miss. My left foot felt funny. I looked down to see the threading of my left crank arm being dispersed amongst the seasons leaves. The sight of the metal shards sent anger to my stomach like a third bowl of Kashi. I stopped to inspect and within fractions of a second I knew a the crank arm had seen its last revolution. I had not mentioned that my bike is still out of commission and the sin had been committed to my brothers Rockhopper. I knew he would jump with joy when I informed him of what I had done. Fortunate for me, he just purchased an older Cannondale road bike, and I knew I could by a little time with this distraction.

Thankfully I wasn’t far from home and was quick on my way in the saddle of the Trek 3700. Then, after completing over 75% of my commute; an awful, atrocious, deafening, blinding sound from my back wheel…DE-RAIL-LEUR!!! Then I hit the pavement. Ouch, and thank god there were no cars in my lane on Centerville Rd. In what now feels like an innate reaction, the sound caused a clinching of the breaks. So fast in fact, that I didn’t have time to wedge my foot out of the freakin cages. What can I say; I’m not used to riding sans clipless. Bruised knee and ego aside, I had to lock up the Trek to a fence right at the corner of Centerville and Betton and then hustle to work. I arrive at work with perfect timing. I spend the next 6 hours trying to figure out why god hates me.

Wile E

This mid week entry is brought to you in part by our friends at the US Army. One of which I encountered at the parking/trailhead after he put his convertible Mustang GT on top of the fence. Yes, on top of the thick wooden fence surrounding the parking lot. The fellow, with US Army vanity tag COYOTE managed to rest his car on top of an 8”x8” post with all but one of his tires suspended slightly off of the ground. As I approached him with Ginger, he was disposing of a gallon sized ziplock bag with what looked like trash in it. I enquired, “What did you do man?” I’m not sure if it was an unfamiliar dialect, drunken slur, or the chicken leg that he had spent no less than an hour gnawing on that rendered his response pointless. I did get from his gestures that he intended on trying to drive his car off of the mangled fencing after which point he would be barricaded in a shallow holding pond. Not a well thought through plan. I urged him to reconsider. I could also tell that he had no intention in notifying the county that he was responsible for the damage. Worried that this was the second DUI I witnessed at the trailhead within two weeks, I was relieved by the prompt response of the county’s finest. I leered like the nosiest neighbor you ever had for what seemed like an hour but was probably closer to half that. Coyote’s cousins showed up. As they were assisting their kin by pulling his car off easily from the broken wood, the “Major” only applied the brake, preventing him from backing into the helping truck, after warning screams from the fam. Even though the sheriff seemed to take note of this, I never did see any testing of our subject and I believe that the County deemed him ok to drive.

Despite the expense of new fencing to the county, there is good news regarding the supposed closing of the singletrack in our greenways. Apparently earlier reposts were not 100% accurate. The county will not be closing any trails. There may even be an opportunity to work with the powers that be to develop new trail, and in a potential best case scenario, the city may take over responsibility of the land. This is merely what a little bird on a snow bike told me and may or may not be more than wishful thinking. More reports on this in the not so distant future.