Bittersweettoast

When I led bike tours, one aspect of this multi-faceted job was to give route descriptions each morning before setting out on the day's ride. Generally speaking this was pretty straight forward because even if it was a new trip we had never been on before, the company always supplied leaders with plenty of information about each route. But one particular trip presented very unusual circumstances --Yellowstone National Park during the summer of the big fires. Our first trip there had gone without a hitch as the fires circled the periphery of the park's most popular destinations. But by the time we started our second trip, roads were closing everywhere throughout the park, forcing us to adjust our routes to roads we had never seen. Co-leaders always took turns doing the daily route talk, and on our first day through this uncharted territory, I listened while one of the other leaders gave the day's talk. Instead of saying to all our guests that we had absolutely no idea wh...

Many years ago I competed in triathlons, and one race always sticks out in my mind. Actually, it's one moment from one race. I was on the bike leg, which for me was always my strongest. As I was riding along and happily gaining ground on all the folks who were stronger swimmers, another woman came up alongside and said, "Hey, nice bike." We chatted for half a minute about the finer points of Cannondale bikes, and then she sped off. When I looked down at her calf muscle and saw the permanent pen markings that indicated her age, I read five zero, fifteen years my senior! Humbled? Yes. Impressed? Very much so. I have long been drawn to older, fit folks. If you've been a longtime reader of my blog, you might remember when I wrote about George Garside and the Auckland Cycle Touring Association . This was a group of incredibly fit 60, 70, and 80 year old men I was privileged to ride with once, and the experience definitely left its mark. These men took their fitness serio...