Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance

I have arrived, I am one of the privileged elite. I just noticed today that I have been given the honor of a permanent link on Big Jonny’s blog roll link list. I feel good. I recommend not following that link if you haven’t been there before or have no idea what I’m talking about, just let it be.

#1. Religious Right. This has been boiling in my little head for some time now and I think it’s time to release the steam. I consider myself Christian. I was raised that way. The problem is the way religion is used in mainstream politics to further their own economic good and misrepresent their true motives. I honestly believe that if properly applied Christian ideas, those put forth by JC himself, can save the world. Instead, we follow what these dumb asses tell us is the right thing to do. Mainly bombing the shit out of everything in the name of democracy, religion or anything else they can rummage up that they feel the public will buy as a “good” motive. The problem with this is two fold. It has been going on for the length of the existance of Western civilization. Secondly, the track record of these idiots shows, demonstrates and indicates that they only have economic motives for such actions. Democracy is only good if the right person is voted and if he isn’t, as has been the case, we supplant them with a brutal dictator (Pinochet, Somoza etc.). If a dictator is in place who honors our “needs” we support him until he doesn’t (Hussein). This is wrong and duly so, when it is done in the name of religious fervor.

#2. Mr. Gurr has given life, the Gurrito has arrived. Congratulations Lacy and Ryan. I know that is a strange way to start a rant but damnit this is my blog and I’ll do what I want. I’m not sure what I’m ranting about but it has something to do with starry-eyed 18 year-olds and sex. And how something is wrong, more just because I’m sure it is than having any proof of my own. I just don’t like it. If you haven’t figured it out by now you are not alone, cause I haven’t got a clue either. This is supposed to be a numbered rant but damnit Gurr had a baby and that kicks ass.

#3. The world needs to equalize. The powerful elite need to simplify and those without need to be given the opportunity to have. Yes, that means that we need to give in and live simply lowering our standard of living and making true attempts to alleviate the pain and suffering going on in other parts of the world, and not by trickle down Reagonomics that never worked anyways.

#4. How am I supposed to stop loving all of a sudden? I’m not really sure how this whole divorce thing works. My entire life I’ve thought of love and marriage as lasting a lifetime and now I’m required to think otherwise. The rewiring is taking a long time and hurts like hell. I just don’t understand the idea of giving up on what you’ve fought so long for. If anyone has any ideas or good counsel or if you just want to tell me to shut up and get over it, I’ll gladly delete all your comments.

#5. The Crawling Spider Gallery has yet to update since the Anti-Sea Otter Festival that happened months ago. Of all the people, Mr. Pratt is the one to blame for this and I think we should throw eggs at his house and let the air out of all his tires.

Peace. Love. and Revolution.

Friday has rolled around one more time and I haven’t done much.

I did a two in one on Wednesday. Ian and I did a short jaunt on the road. Mostly we tried to find Smithfield Canyon, but apparently the locals around here don’t know how to get places. So we did the Tour de Smithfield’s suburban hell. Wondering to and fro through neighborhoods desperately looking for a way to get out.

Then came evening. I decided it would be a good idea for me to do a long mountain ride, at least longer than I have been doing. I rode the Canal Trail to the River Trail and back to First Dam. At First Dam, they have recently finished the Boneville Shoreline Trail, or at least to that point. It seemed a good idea to ride the Shoreline Trail over to Green Canyon. Unfortunately, those who built the final part of the Shoreline Trail did so in a way that made it extremely dificult to climb, as in it is bloody steep. I was forced to stand up straight in the pedals and push with all my force down to maintain forward momentum. And to further the suffering, there is a false summit or two before the trail finally levels off and begins to descend towards the canyon.

After the brutality of the climb, I found the original Shoreline Trail that is a six inch singletrack that parallels the new trail. This part of the trail was quite enjoyable even if the trail was so narrow that the sage brush just about ripped me off my bike a few times. The trail flows up and down staying relatively flat until it drops into Green Canyon. This ride started at 7 p.m. on a day that was cold for May. By the time I reached the canyon it was in the shade and I was freezing despite having my knickers, long sleeve wool jersey and vest on. I got to the end of the singletrack and headed home as fast as possible.

I was spent.

I haven’t ridden since.

For some reason it has taken me a long time, but I have finally started writing in hopes of getting something published again. I guess the motivation comes mostly from being so bored and getting sick of reading what others have written. The creative juices have begun to take their toll and the muses haunting my house will soon be caught and pinned to a blank piece of brown paper.

Peace. Love. and Revolution.

The northern Knucklers did a ride this morning of the pavement variety. A good two hour jaunt was just what I needed to see how the new, borrowed steed would feel. I actually was quite impressed. It fits me great is really smooth and climbs like a mountain goat, although there wasn’t very much climbing. We did a loop that is called the Little Pyrenees. By it’s namesake, I expected some great climbs but was let down. We sprinted up some inclines but nothing that I would call a climb. For the area we must have ridden all the flat ground out there.

Things here at the shop have been hopping and bouncing and doing other things as well. All in all, I am busy.

I think I’m going to get one of these. The riding up here is great for 29′r’s so we are pushing them here at the shop and what better than a company devoted to their existance. Plus it will lighten mine up significantly.

Pedal damn it!

I just realized how much I miss St. George thanks to the pics on the Gurrman’s site. It seems that out of the three bloggers, I am the most up-to-date of all, which doesn’t say much.

I just about died last night on one of the most benign trails in the world. We went up Green Canyon for a quick jaunt after work. There is one short section of single track that is on the side of a wash for a bit. This puts the trail about 10 feet above the ground on the right side, the left side is a steep embankment. I found the only possible place to do something stupid and did it. There is a boulder on the left side of the trail that stands about 6 feet in height. I could see that someone had either walked up onto the boulder or ridden and I thought that would be a great way to actually test my handling skills (which hasn’t been happening a lot lately). I rolled into a couple of times only to lose traction about half way up. The third attempt, I came in hotter and made it just below the top. At the most inoportune moment my foot comes out of my pedal and all forward motion comes to a stop. The foot that came out was up hill. I started to fall down hill with my other foot still in place. As I looked to my right to see where I could bale all I could see was about 15 feet of abyss seeing that I was on top of the boulder and the boulder was on top of the trail which in turn hung on top of the aforementioned wash. I’m not sure how, but Anson was able to move quickly enough to catch me on the way down and bounce me into the trail instead of soaring into the rocky wash below. Thanks to Anson all I suffered was a laceration on my right leg that still stings like a bitch, but…

Peace.

This evening after work will be the first northern Alliance ride. Hopefully more people show up than did the first month or so of our rides in the south. I’m not sure if anyone is still doing those rides, I can’t say as that I’ve heard from anyone for a while. Maybe I should write some letters.

I just spent the better part of an hour trying to update my account at Ironweed so that I can make sure to get my new documentaries. Apparently I’m retarded and it took me that long to realize that I couldn’t use the symbol # for my apartment number. Anyways, the knuckler did figure it out and all is well.

I finally got another road bike. I received a TCR Advanced 1 yesterday in the mail. I took it out for a quick jaunt and things look good. It’s stiff, light and rides nice. That sums up what one looks for in a road bike so I cannot and won’t complain. It also has the added plus of looking stealth which happens to be my preferred look for my road bikes.

I’ve been doing a lot of walking lately. Living just a few block from everything I need makes this a possibility and a pleasure. Around 9 o’clock is my selected time. I’ll walk to the store or to the shop to use the internet or whatever. I’ve noticed how much more quiet the city is at night. Of course, the reason I’ve enjoyed these little strolls is because I can think. Otherwise, if I ride my bike the trip is to short and no thinking can occur. I seem to have some serious problem that impedes me from thinking when I’m not transporting myself somewhere. Anyways, a couple of nights ago when I realized how quiet it is, I started to think about noise. Cities are noisy because of machines. The automobiles transporting one person and the industry and comerce of the day creates a lot of noise. In Chile, I liked to climb Renca Hill so I could get away from everything for just a bit, but upon reaching the top and the relative solitude it provided me, I could still hear the city.

A long time ago, as in back in the day, as in when I was in high school, as in a long time ago, I tried to find silence. Anyone who has set out on this quest finds that silence does not in any degree exist. I began by hiking alone to the remote places around St. George. I was able to get away from the bustle of the city, but soon realized that nature is all in a bustle as well. The bees hums, birds sing and beautiful sounds are everywhere but silence is nowhere. I searched for places where these things didn’t play their tunes. Snowy wonderlands brought new sounds into my now going-insane head. I decided to rethink my quest. I analyzed every possible place that could resist noise and came to the conclusion that a soundproof box would be the most plausible. But then I realized the most important part of the equation, I make noise. The noise in my head was louder the quieter it became in my surroundings. I then spent a long time trying to quiet my head, but that is a topic for another day.

Peace. Love. and Revolution.

Be the beginning.

Whoa! 7 comments on one Knuckler rant that is a record. I’ve read and re-read my post and am having a bit of trouble deciphering where certain comments came from. I guess everyone reads into things differently and that is the beauty of human thought. I appreciate your comments, even beyond just knowing that someone reads this mumbo jumbo but it’s nice to know what people think.

To clarify, I have not changed my plans from becoming a journalist, yes as in jumping through the hopes and getting a degree. I was only trying to explain why I am disenfranchised with the idea. It really comes down to me being happy with who I am and not feeling a necessity to change that for monetary gain.

In unrelated news, the Mooseknuckler Alliance officially adopted a trail on Saturday. After intense training with the forest service (read: a couple hours of nothing), I was given the responsibility of maintaining the trail that beat me into submission the week past. Old Jardine, as it’s called, has some problems that I won’t be able to solve myself but I can hopefully make some noise about them and get things rolling in the right direction. The bottom of the trail goes directly up a drainage, running parallel to a stream coming down the valley. As you can imagine, there are serious erosion problems. From the bottom of the drainage it switchbacks up to another flat spot and then continues to switchback to an old juniper tree. Beautiful views and the switchbacks are buffed out single track, but it is a lot of climbing. I’m hoping to make it up tomorrow morning to see if I can reclaim my pride.

Adopting the trail, I hope will allow me to bring the MCA into existence in some form up here in the polar north. I’ve begun the Wednesday night Alliance ride and hope to get more people involved in maintaining the trails in this region. I guess I’m willing to do anything to improve the riding that now surrounds me and will be my home for a year or so.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say. I’ve been reading a lot due to the lack of media in my new abode. I turn on music and read, that is pretty much all the entertainment I have. I finished Collapse by Jared Diamond, read, A Clockwork Orange and have recently added Diario de un Mojado to my collection.

I guess I should mention the boycott of gas stations on the 15th of our current month. A great idea except it is only for one day. If you all really want to stick it to the man ride a bike because gas prices aren’t going to go down. I am kind of glad they are so high, it’s a great motivator for a lot of people to get out of their pollution spewing coffins and transport themselves by their own power.

Ride more, Drive Less.

I picked up a hitchiker today. I tried to go ride the Jardine Juniper trail that I hiked on Sunday but it beat me into submission embarrassingly fast. I’m really hoping that it was due to my lack of nutrition from the night before and eating a big unhealthy breakfast, but I just couldn’t get it going.

Every so often I realize things that I have realized in the past. I had one of those realizations today. As many of you know this will be my eighth year as a college student, sort of, and it seems like that is not motivation enough to graduate. The thing is I have no desire to have a profession. You know, to do something to benefit myself monetarily. I really like what I do now and would be happy doing it for a long time with a few side things going on in the background. To my father’s dismay, this realization came a long time ago and is what made me give up the idea of being an engineer, and not the kind that drives trains. I think I would self-destruct within a few years of trying to be an engineer. I guess what it really comes down to is the fact that I don’t want to become something else, I’m quite happy with what I am.

Realizing what I am is the reason that I chose my current major, journalism. As one person put it, I guess I want to “journalize.” But that poses another problem, I don’t really want to “journalize.” I just want to be me and be me really well, hopefully well enough that I can be me and make enough money to keep myself and family from starving. That is all I ask of life, and so far life has been willing to give that to me without asking many questions. So I ask you, my loyal readers, what the hell is this whole rat race about? Where are we going? and what in the name of Mary are we going to do when we get there?

Most importantly, what are you going to do with all the stuff you have accumulated when the game ends?

After this epiphany of sorts, I read, again, Thoreau’s Life without Principle. Everything he wrote makes perfect sense to me in conjunction with the way I view life. I see no reason to whore myself out to industry and commerce only to be able to live more luxuriously. I guess the question posed in Office Space is quite appropriate for me. If I had a million dollars I would probably just keep doing what I’m doing because that is me. The beauty of all of this is that I don’t need a million dollars to be who I am. I just need a few.

Declare your sovereignty.

Top of the morning to all you knucklers out there.

Wow it’s hard to post when you don’t have immediate access to a computer. Which is also the reason there still hasn’t been a post of Fruita. Frankly, I haven’t even processed the pics yet. On my little LCD screen, the pictures look great a few seem a bit over exposed due to trying to get the pictures as people caught up to me and not worrying enough about my settings. Probably the reason why most photographs that we see aren’t sponaneous.

I saw Hot Fuzz last night, absolutely hillarious.

I’ve only been on one ride since I got up here. It rained and/or snowed from Thursday on last week so there wasn’t much available trail wise. I did go for a great hike on Sunday after the snow had melted. I went up Jardine Juniper, hike the whole damn thing in 3 1/2 hours. My legs are soar from not being accustomed to walking that much. I feel like I ran a marathon. My shins really hurt and seem to be getting stiffer.

Things in Logan are good now that the weather is nice.

Peace. Love. and Revolution.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a short story written by James Baldwin entitled Sonny’s Blues. A great story by a great author that portrays the struggle between artist and art. A good read for sure.

I awoke to a cold drizzly day again, although the drizzle hasn’t seemed to arrive yet. I hope to do a short stint tonight after work to keep my legs loose. All of the trails that are longer and more mountain bike worthy are still wet and with the new snow from yesterday probably will be for a while. I think I finally hunted down all the creaks the 29′r had developed at and before our trip to Grand Junction.

As soon as I find a good place, I will start to post the pictures and a good write up of the adventure. Until then or sooner…

Peace.

Ah, children of the corn, Knuckler salutes you.

I awoke today thinking that there were rats in the attic or two inches above my ceiling. The scratching and clawing seemed to go all the way around my apartment. At the time, I didn’t think that it was weird that I hadn’t heard anything the night before, but anyways… About 8 o’clock I heard something rustling around in a plastic bag not too far from my cot. I raised up to see what it was, and there about three feet from me was perched a black bird. I’m not sure if that is better than rats but probably easier solved. My one window doesn’t have a screen and I keep it open for a nice breeze. It started raining this morning so I guess the poor sucker got in and then when it began to sprinkle he got locked in.

So, I’m in Logan. Yesterday was b e a utiful. Today is drizzly and depressing and it snowed in the mountains. I got a quick stint of a ride in last night that wasn’t too fun nor too boring. You know the trails are easy when you can do ten miles in about 45 minutes, but at least I got to ride. It seems that a bad reputation has proceeded me due to seeing a local Loganite on Gould’s loop a couple months ago. Everyone is under the impression that I’m fast, sorry to desillusion.

Anyways, I gotta go. I am working on a long write up of Fruita. Stay tuned or not.

Ride more, Drive less.