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 I realized it as soon as I parked my car at the trailhead and stepped out. I mentally facepalmed myself. I had forgotten to grab my helmet. I know we used to ride bikes without helmets. Even the first mountain bikers. But nowadays I don't even cruise the side walk without a helmet. I'm definitely not riding a sick day at Left Hand without a brain bucket. At least I was by myself so I wasn't ruining anyone else's day. I accepted the fact that I wouldn't be doing any hardcore riding and resigned myself to some trail maintenance. It was still a beautiful day and I was in my favorite place, so I headed up. I thought about the judgement I would receive from other mountain bikers, but no one lectured me about head trauma. Then I stashed my bike and became a hiker anyway.  The last time I rode Indy I did notice lots of loose rocks. In my thirty-plus years on a mountain I've realized that loose rocks on a trail are just as sketchy then as they are now. I've also re...

 I've been off the bike for a long time, so it was nice to kick off the season for real. The first thing I did was bring a total newb to Valmont. He's a kid I work with who's a wildland firefighter. He said he's never had to chance to mt. bike but always wanted too. So I threw him on a dirt jumper and told him where to go. He did awesome. I sent him down the small slope style line, dual slalom, pump tracks and single tracks.  With full sleeve tattoos and a borrowed skid lid he already looked like an X Games pro. It was fun to see him work up the courage to do the tiny diving board. The first time he pedaled towards it, then stopped and had to start over. I got to see the exhilaration of a successful attempt. The ride went perfectly and at the end he was googling used dirt jumpers. A few days later I got out on my first trail ride. My riding buddy Aki took me out to a new trail that I had only heard about. We started down and encountered a large rock slab. I scoped it ou...

 History is a giant wave washing  over the timeline, some things float to the top and get carried along with it, while others are swept away for ever. In the months after 9/11, footage of the event played on tv news every day for weeks. The attack only lasted a few hours, but hundreds of hours of video footage was captured. I assumed that the internet would hold a record of those video clips, but it really doesn't. All that exists now is some carefully curated footage and most of it is in documentaries.  One particular memory I have can't be found online, maybe it's in some newsroom vault or maybe it was erased and taped over. But I can describe it. The man filming is running down the streets getting closer and closer to the first tower. He arrives just as the first tower falls. A wave of darkness blocks out the camera and you can hear the powerful wind howling past like a hurricane. Gradually light starts to come back and the street he was on is transformed into a mono-c...