Walden

Sunday was a great ride out at the Goose. The ant-Sea Otter Classic was in full swing. We had the mesa almost entirely to ourselves. I haven’t seen that parking lot void of cars on a Sunday in years. It really kind of sucks how popular it is getting. Any time we find something we love it seems the masses tend to pull and rip it apart because they can. The tragedy of the commons sucks. The disregard for the trail is what bothers me the most. Riders who attempt to go around obstacles create big fat areas where you can’t even tell what the hell the original trail was supposed to be. If you’re going to ride a trail, ride it the way it was designed. Do not sanitize it for your own riding experience. Of course, that goes in the opposite direction as well. If you’re going to ride a trail don’t screw it up to build things that are, in your mind, bigger and better. I guess what I’m trying to say is respect the trail and the artist who built it.

Tomorrow is the Alliance Ride. We are meeting at 6 p.m. at Red Rock Bicycle. I have been informed by a reliable witness that the Bear Claw Poppy is blooming out on the Bear Claw Poppy Trail. So, we will be spinning out that direction for a nice foto opportunity.

I have a confession to make to all the Mooseknucklers out there. The last few months I have been a bit too relaxed. You might even go as far as to say that I have been lazy. I have been driving way too much. This week I started, with renewed vigor, to commute to work. So far I have not driven my car yet this week. I will have to drive tomorrow for the group ride but other than that this week is looking good. Getting back in the saddle to pedal my way through life has brought some much needed relaxation that I wasn’t getting from my laziness. I know I’m preaching to the choir but riding to and from work really is better. I’ve re-convinced myself of that.

I also re-realized how bad cars suck. When I was riding to work on Monday, I was thinking about a letter to the editor in our local daily publication. The letter had the jist that cyclists should grow up, buy a car and pay taxes. Luckily, the paper’s website allows responce from the general public and the idiot who wrote the letter got blasted with upset replies. Anyways… I was thinking about the whole tax thing. It seems a bit ridiculous that I should pay taxes to use a road that in no way is being damaged by me. I don’t have any research to back this up, but if a million cyclists rode a section of road a day, I really don’t think any damage would be done. Which made me think about cars in general. Their weight is what makes them so stupid. We use a couple thousand pound machine to move a person waying a couple hundred pounds. It doesn’t exactly make sense.

But this is what Capitalism has brought us to, and we all know it always foments efficiency… which is exactly why we spend billions of dollars building roads that get destroyed by huge machines that are used to haul little bitty people. We also build huge power plants to power our air-conditioned cubicles in the desert instead of placing solar panels on the roofs of every building and completely eliminating the need for power plants. It’s also why we fight wars to ensure a constant flow of fossil fuels and cheap labor to power our big electricity producing plants and pollution spewing coffins. It’s also why we do everything we can to keep that cheap labor on the other side of the borders so we don’t have to pay actual market value for a salad, electronics, or even bicycles. I think we should make sure we perpetuate this system as far in to the future as possible. That way our children can continue to reap the benefits, suffer the consequences and try to defend themselves from the rest of this world when the laborers final revolt in disgust.

I, for one, hope to never be the system. I hope to be able to stand for what I am and to align myself with those who are on the downside. I will always ride, write and rebel.

Declare your sovereignty.

By the way, the garden is coming along wonderfully. We have tomatoes, peas, and onions sprouting up. I just wish I could get some chickens but that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. I feel cheated that I won’t be able to share in the labor and fruits of the garden with my parents. I guess the most important thing is that the idea came to fruition. Maybe someday I will be able to have a plot of land that I can grow something for myself and then have children that know where milk comes from.