The Ride is the Reward

Friday evening it came to an end; the mountain-bike road trip finished in Terlingua, Texas with a party celebrating the change of the Mayan calendar and the winter solstice.  And while the past few weeks may not represent an epoch per se, they form a chapter in my life I’ll always remember; not just for the rides, but for the trip itself.

In just under three weeks we explored thirteen trails over twelve days in ten towns and in six States.  We mountain-biked over 400 kms (250 miles) in about 45 hours, climbing over 9,000 metres (29,600 feet).  Most days we rode just us two, though we did join a club ride in Utah, met others on the trail in California and rode with a dear friend in New Mexico.  We stayed with friends, in RV parks, on town streets and big-box store parking-lots.  Most of our meals were cooked in the van, sometimes while driving, always very tasty.  Included in our pilgrimage were some of America’s most fabled mountain-bike destinations; Phil’s World, Moab, Hurricane, Bootleg Canyon, Marin County, Santa Cruz and more.  Typically, rides were about four hours in length with temperatures in the mid-teens Celsius [high 50’s-low 60’s F), though there was a 6.5 hour ride and one that barely reached seven degrees Celsius (mid 40’s F).

All that time, Reilly and I lived together in those close quarters, rarely getting a break from each other; although, there was that time he went to Wendy’s for a burger and I went to Subway for their veggie patty submarine sandwich.(rarely available in Canada)  There were a few times after a long day when we both were hungry that perhaps we got a bit snippy with each other but otherwise, we were excellent travelling companions.  As I’m sure you all can attest, not all friends travel well together.  More than just easy-going travellers, we always encouraged each other to ride more, to ride harder, to ride better; to push ourselves to new heights, rewarded with the views from the summits of personal achievement.

While our final goal, our final destination was here in south-west Texas, as in life, it is the trip–not the destination–that brings us to happiness and fulfilment.  Just like every turn of the cranks, it is the ride that rewards, not the destination.

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