Monday, December 08, 2008
Sharing the rigors of the trail
Ray Stubblefield
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From the RoundTable blog
November flew by. It's one of those transition months. Although technically winter doesn't start until Dec. 21, or there about, it's the month that bridges fall and winter-like weather. At the start of November, there's still some fall color hanging on, and you can get some very pleasant, warm sunny afternoons.
By month's end, it's all over. We've had a number of hard freezes, and even some snow, usually just flurries. The leaves have all fallen and need one final raking. The grass is brown, and those cold, gray, rainy winter days begin to settle in, seeping deep into your bones.
These are the kinds of days that make me glad I have a wood stove. (Actually, we have two.) Nothing chases the cold and damp away like a dry stack of seasoned oak or hickory and a well-tended wood stove. Of course nothing generates a mess like a wood stove either.
There's no getting around it. They're work, but in the end, we think it's worth it. Or I should say, I do. My wife tolerates the stoves as long as I do most of the work.
On the first weekend in November I took my new mountain bike out for a test spin. It was a big improvement over my old one, so I was eager to compare. I got my first mountain bike about 10 years ago. I had ridden road bikes for 30 years or more, but mountain biking was a new experience altogether.
It's hiking on a bicycle. Almost anywhere you can hike, you can mountain bike. And as you can imagine, mountain biking can provide some serious technical and physical challenges. When I first did some single track trails on Turkey Cock Mountain near my home, it reminded me of cross-country running and alpine skiing combined.
What a minute, you're thinking. You just said, it's hiking on a bicycle. As far as the terrain you cover it is, but as far as how you cover it, that's where the running and skiing come in.
As my poor knees can attest, I've done endurance sports all my life, from distance running, cross-country skiing, bicycling to hiking, and nothing has worked me as hard has climbing a steep trail on a mountain bike, nothing.
But then there's the reward when you reach the top. You get to zoom down the other side. And that's where it's a lot like alpine skiing. You can go as fast as your skills and courage will let you. I guess that's why most ski resorts host mountain biking competitions during the summer months. It's the same terrain, just a different mode of transport.
I have a lot less courage than the twenty-somethings I see on the mountain. At my age, I want to avoid broken bones at all cost, and believe me I've had my share.
On cold days, my right shoulder still reminds me of that major bike crash I had eight years ago that resulted in a break in two places and a 60 percent tear in my rotator cuff. After major surgery and almost a year of rehab, I got my shoulder back to 100 percent mobility and strength, but I sure don't want to go through that again.
By the way, that was a road bike crash, not a mountain bike. My body didn't handle hitting the pavement at 25 mph too well. I had a cracked helmet and concussion just as a little added bonus.
The last weekend in November I went mountain biking again, but this time with my son Brad. He had taken some leave to be with family on Thanksgiving, and hopped a MAC flight out of Ramstein Air Base. He's in the army stationed in Germany. For the last two Thanksgivings all he could do was call us from Iraq.
Having him home for the holidays was wonderful. It had been years since we had ridden together, and it reminded me of what a great kid he was, and just how much I missed him. Even though he's 26, I still have to remind myself he's not a kid anymore.
His visit ended all too soon. In another 24 hours he would be 4,500 miles away, and come spring he might be facing his second deployment to Iraq. But by then the cold November rains that our nation faced this year will have given way to the gentle, warm rains of spring. And with each spring comes new life and a new hope.
Stubblefield, who teaches earth science at Franklin County High School, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
