“You’re a cyclist?” I ventured.
Some people guess weights, some professions. I look at someone’s physique and try to guess how they have fun.
“Yeah!” David answered.
“Road?”
“Yeah, mostly. I do triathlons.”
We were gearing up to climb early this morning at the Triangle Rock Club and the short exchange picked up my spirits. A month-plus of assorted deadlines had started taking its toll on my immune system. Physically, mentally I had wound down. I needed something.
David and I had just met, mutual friends of our third climbing partner, Joel. The awkwardness of the first-time meeting was absent, which I attribute in part to climbing mojo. Different sports communities have different vibes, not all of which are entirely supportive. Climbing, though, is a sport apart. I’ve had 5.12 climbers give me a “Nice!” at the gym after I’ve topped out on a 5.8. This after they stopped to watch me grapple with a problem and suggest a key move I didn’t see. And it travels to the top of sport. Not to name drop, but I’ve met Conrad Anker and Cory Richards, and I’m pretty sure if I’d said, “Hey, my microbus is out back; let’s grab our gear and head to Linville Gorge,” both would have been in the back asking “Are we there yet?” before I’d started the engine.
We started climbing and it came up that David had a mess of titanium in his elbow, courtesy of a mountain bike accident.
“You mountain bike, too?” I asked. We talked for a minute about where we like to ride. “So,” I asked, “you ever ride Morrisville?”
David smiled. He works for a retail developer that developed a parcel of land that previously played host to a popular, albeit illegal, mountain bike trail referred to simply as Morrisville. Rebel trail, trail developed on private property not in use, is common. Mountain bikers know such trail is ephemeral, that it can disappear overnight. Still, when it does … .
“I told my buddies, ‘If you want to ride one last time let’s do it today because we’re getting to work in their tomorrow.”
We climbed some, talked more. Soon it was time to head to work, to another day of deadlines. Work’s been a challenge. Before hitting the gym I felt like I’d hit the wall. After climbing the wall, I was ready to give my deadlines another try.read more
I have various rules of thumb for when it’s too hot to do certain things. Over 80? Too hot to hike (sweat + overnight cobweb construction + lots of body hair makes me feel like a wad of cotton candy after a mile or so). I draw the line slightly higher, at 85, for running, mainly because of the skimpy apparel involved. I’ll paddle into the low 90s, but not on open, unshaded water. I can handle 90 degrees on a mountain bike; the calculation becomes more involved on a road bike. I’ll ride up to 95 on road, maybe higher if I don’t have to stop; few things are more demoralizing than coming to a stoplight after generating an 18-mile-per-hour breeze, then losing that breeze altogether. (Sweaty fact: 109 F is 42.777 C.)read more
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.read more
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: The climbing gym.read more
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: Summer in January. Last week, after four straight days of gloomy winter overcast we celebrated with a 90-Second Escape to blue skies past. Today, along a similar vein, we escape the seasonal chill of winter’s dog days and revisit the heat of summer.
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