episode 158 : the great north west

okay, okay, okay...

Been a while since I updated. No, I haven't quit riding bikes. Oh yeah i am totally counting on wrapping my ass in black lycra this fall.

So where was I for the last 21 days?

Well, I was a proud member of the hybrid.pedal team. You can get the official story of our adventures here. This is clearly the unofficial, some of my version, clearly the potty mouth version of our trip.

I know, I know, How many teams can one guy ride for? No it wasn't like that.

Hybrid.pedal was a team of riders that took a 900 mile bike journey from Portland, Oregon, my favorite city in the world, to the outdoor retailer show in Salt Lake City, Utah. We did it over 14 days, roughly 70 miles a day.

Our purpose was to spread awareness about the conservation alliance, ride through some of the areas the conservation alliance has helped to protect, and to create a film of the our journey, to be debuted at the outdoor retailer show.

The riding was wonderful, this really made me fall in love with my bike all over again. I have hundreds of amazing stories to tell, which I'll never be able to get on this blog. The North West was absolutely breath taking from, the Steens, to the Saw tooth mountains, to that freaky fucking kid in Post that could make any animal noise you could imagine. It was a once in a life time trip, and I was honored to be a member of the team, and to be an ambassador for the conservation alliance, even if I had to listen to more fucking dirty hippie music than I have in my life. Can a brother get a little Ramones, how about some TV on the radio? Something with a little pain and suffering please? But I digress.

My teammates we simply awesome. The bulk of the group were Keeners, and they kindly let me crash the party, and treated me with kindness, and put up with my tom foolery, my shenanigans, and the fact that I am pretty much a huge jackass. I don't think I could capture all the stories from the road. Dan Austin, a film maker now living in New York, did a hell of a good job, I however would like to high light my teammates just a little bit.

The ride was supported by the group who run cycle oregon. Here the boys are enjoying a great breakfast of Utah scones. No, not your new york version, much better than that.

Jerry and Harry are 30 year vets of the bike industry. If you ride a trek, and love it Harry is likely responsible for bringing that product to market. Greg in one sick dude, his next race will be a 508 mile road race, no drafting, through death valley. Mike is just a great guy, and super strong rider, he could sit on the front and make tempo all day. Jerry was the glue that held everything together at the end of the day it truly was an amazing and wonderful trip.

This is kyle, he is was the toughest guy on the team. He is not a cyclist. I understand he is an amazing fisherman. Each day kyle, who didn't like riding in a pack would go it alone, at his own pace, slowly clipping off the miles. Totally solo. Figure a 70 mile solo ride everyday. sick kid, super nice too. Kyle was my tent mate, sorry if my night time flattle was too much.

Eric rode a 30 miles stretch of the ride, previously his longest ride was 5 miles. Every town we ended up in, Eric would find and rip the local skate park. The dude is responsible for getting me to skate too in ketchum. That was fun, scary but fun. Eric was really the heart of this team. I greatly appreciated him. He was always a happy face on the road, and a hug at the end of a hard day.

Chris was the voice of the team. At a number of stops local conservation groups would have receptions for us, and would share with us their current struggles, and how the conservation alliance has, continues to help them. Truth is it was inspiring to me most of the time, this guy Kevin in Logan, was amazing. Chris was smooth like butter, more so I was always impressed with how after killing himself on the bike, he could walk in front of the crowd, and give a heartfelt, and compelling speech, from a couple of quick notes. A surfer at heart, Chris was pretty amazing out there.

This is Bree and Brent. They got engaged on their first day of the tour. Have you ever tried to draft off of a couple while they are busy pawing at each other. Jesus, I had to refrain from screaming at them," get a fucking room, stop screwing up my draft!" Just kidding, the story of Brent and Bree is pretty amazing. Brent is a veteran of the Leadville 100, and a hell of a rider. The kid can climb up walls. Best of all he is the nicest, most positive person I ever met. I mean I was having a bad moment, really homesick and down, and Brent was like, "he buddy it's gonna be okay!" I'd be like "fuck you Brent, I'm going to eat your soul." He respond, "don't be down, everything is going to be great, this totally rules!" Yeah, super good guy putting up with me.

Speaking of putting up with me, poor Bree was my contact for the ride, so I was totally sending her long stalker emails to figure out just what I needed to bring to the ride, she had a pension to be very positive, but also can swing the other way, and tell me to jump off a bridge when I need to. I was so grateful for her help, and to get to be apart of their great day. Best wishes to the both of you.

Shannon is a SLC native. Total child of nature and an incredible person. Okay, she is a total dirty hippie, but I won't hold that against her. Never an angry moment, always a smile on her face, she was really a great teammate, and a lot of fun to be around. At one point, I said something about all the crazy "damn dirty hippies" and her eyes had gotten all big and red, you know this after we just drug each other through 30 miles of headwind, until I responded, " don't worry Shan, you are all aces in my book!" We had a lot of laughs together, and it was great to always see her around the show.

Linda was not a cyclist. She is an incredible athlete and person. The first day, I ended up behind her and watched her pedal stroke. Totally l7, as in square man. By day three, she had greatly cleaned that up, and as she inadvertently attacked the group going up a pass, it took everything I had to not get dropped by her. Later that night I was checking out her 30lb bike, you know the one complete with disc breaks, and was amazed at how she was just crushing climbs. I can only imagine if she was on my 15lb bike. Yikes. Linda was the voice of reason for the group, and the calming influence when things were tough. She worked hard to be a better cyclist, and to always work hard to benefit the group. She was totally open to coaching from our leaders, and was simply amazing. I have a set of cross tires on the way to Linda for that bike, I hear Portland has a nice little cross scene, Linda may very well be the next big cross queen of portland.

What kind of sick depraved person would come up with an idea for a silly trip like this? Well, Erika would. This entire thing was her baby, and she did an amazing job bringing it to fruition. Erika is a hell of a cyclist, very smooth, and always knew where to be on the road. She worked hard, and could drop all of us on the descents. I would always appreciate how when I would come off the front of the pack, she'd look at me, and raise her hand, and quietly say, "keep your pimp hand strong brother!" Yeah, that was pretty sweet. Perhaps best of all, one night when Shan pulled out a guitar and was singing, (she is a dirty hippie after all, that's in the dirty hippie code) she was singing this beautiful song. I was crushed, totally shattered, home sick and missing Diane. Erika saw I was getting broken up, she started telling me butt paste jokes and made me laugh. Another time, after attacking a pass, (a pretty dumb I idea now that I look back on it) I pretty much totally cracked in the heat, Erika was kind enough to pace me in the last eight miles. Thanks for coming up with this trip, without which I would have never experienced so many of the things that I did. heartfelt gratitude.

Dan is the filmmaker, and artist that was tasked with documenting our journey, and capturing it on film for the conservation alliance. Dan rode about a third of the trip, all on an old F1000 cannondale mountain bike with slicks. Dan never climbed seated, and always rode without a helmet. I should also note that Dan has ridden this same bike across country previously. Dan is incredibly soulful. He really made me aware of the importance of this journey, as a pilgrimage to learn about myself, as much as it was being an ambassador for the conservation alliance. Dan and I spent many a night huddled away from the group, on our cells phones calling home to make that "moo moo" call to our significant others. Dan has a perspective on life, that I was honored to get to share, and will cherish for the rest of my days.

Once we were finally in salt lake I was met by Diane and Breyla la. Dude it was so good to hold Diane and have her hug me.

I so appreciated seeing familiar faces, and my friends from work, and to jump back into the routine. Still, it was very weird to not be hanging with the team as we all charged back to the real world. We were sure fly by and see each other at our booths.

Dan said it best, if you come from the depths of the ocean too fast, you'll get the bends, if you don't come up at all you'll drown, the show provided us a nice buffer and allowed to walk away all smiles and happy endings. I'll admit I loved when my hybrid.pedal teammates would cruise by during the show to see me, or when I could stop by their booths and say hello too.

As a general rule, I never talk about work on this blog. I have to say I love my job, and am so lucky to work for a place like Dansko. The owners of Dansko, my leaders, felt it was important for Dansko to have a representative on this trip, and that it was important for me to have a life experience like this. I can't even begin to say how grateful I am for all of the support and encouragement I was given for work. Very frankly this trip doesn't happen for me if Dansko isn't behind in financially, soulfully, or anything else. People often ask me why I love my job. Really it's not that I have a burning passion for customer service as much as I have a burning passion for doing the right thing. That's what Dansko is all about. Why they chose to send me on this trip, I'll never know, truth is I don't care, but I am incredibly grateful for their generosity.

I'm sure I'll have more, as this was the last 21 days of my life, but for now, I'm really tired. I am happily going to crawl into bed with my wife, wrestle with my dogs for my spot in the bed, and sleep very soundly.

respect.

fatmarc