Vandal Heart

Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 10:27pm
I love biking! I'm not talking about dressing up like a pirate and jumping on some ridiculously over priced Harley Davidson to pretend I'm some kind of bad ass. I'm talking about biking, real biking...2 feet and heartbeat, 2 tires on the street. There isn't much in life that is nearly as fulfilling.

For me it has all the same thrill that senseless vandalism had for me in my teens. There's a freedom and a lawlessness to biking that is deeply satisfying. I'm unrestricted by the lanes and traffic, unrestricted by windshield and engine noise. I'm a self propelled speed demon, striking deals with gravity on steep downhills and sharp turns. While it's theoretically possible to go jumping over stuff in a car or on a motorbike, it's really not practical or feasible. But on a bike, particularly a mountain bike, it's not only practical, it's recommended.

Tonight I got out for about 3 hours, and granted it was just the river trails again, but I love the river trails. There are more than a few dangerous downhills where you get perilously close to the water's edge and the adrenalin starts pumping. But what I enjoy more than that is the sheer volume of life and absence of people down there. There are places where you'll find yourself biking through long emerald tunnels where the foliage closes in on you and there is deep cool green light all around you. It's as though you can feel all the chlorophyll sinking through your skin and energizing your blood.

I quote Oprah when I'm going out biking. I tell Janet, "I'm going out to 'remember my spirit' and I disappear for a few hours. When I come back I'm a much lighter person