Weekend Rides 2019-25 – Page 2

Interim – Rugged

July 4, 2024July 4, 2024E Sharp

June 2024

The alarm goes off at 5.08am. It’s pitch black. It hasn’t been light at this time in a long while. The sun won’t rise until 7.23am.

I uncurl an arm from beneath the depths of the doona and reach up into the cold air to flick on the bedside lamp. Once the light is on, I can see my breath in the air.

Interim – Post-hiberation

April 18, 2024E Sharp

Emerging – April 2024

Last April, at this time, I was wrapping up Unscripted and moving into that ambiguous space between travel and work. Not yet employed, but finished with that spell of riding. But work came quickly and it was less than four weeks off the road before I was signing a one-year contract.

This same week of April, last year. At the caravan park in Narrandera on my way to Cocoparra National Park. Waiting on the phone call about a job interview (the job I thankfully didn’t get). And then later that evening, as I cruise SEEK, I see the job I have now advertised…..

Interim – Every post office has a story

January 31, 2024January 31, 2024E Sharp

The girl has dark hair that curls into her face and eyes. She wears a heavy layer of makeup that will make her cringe later in life when she looks back at photos of this time. She is about 15-years-old and wears tight black jeans. She comes to the counter and plops herself limply on the stool behind, gravity threatening to claim an arm or leg and drag her to the floor. She has been crying and looks at me expectantly but does not say a word.

Interim – Introduction and Adventure 1

September 16, 2023September 16, 2023E Sharp

It’s the in-between time – the time between rides. It’s a year or less of work and trying to put away as much money into investments as possible. It’s time to rebuild the touring fund. It’s time to top up the emergency fund. It’s time to assess how to make the big leap into the unknown at the end of the job contract and leave all the comforts of office work behind.

Beyond Bananas – Conclusion

September 17, 2022E Sharp

I like the stories with happy endings. Or the ones that end up being a start in a series. You know, like when Police Academy 2 was better than the original movie. Never mind about movies 3-6 or 7, of course! I also like stories where the end is really the beginning.

And so Beyond Bananas is coming to an end. There will be no more weekend rides or day rides.

Beyond Bananas – The thirteener

September 12, 2022September 13, 2022E Sharp

7/8 September 2022

Starting elevation: 9606 feet; Highest elevation: 13,651 feet (4161 metres)

Distance: 8 miles? on foot

Dawn is coming soon. First light has arrived and the sky is no longer illuminated only by the almost-full moon. Off to the east, the sun is shooting up rays that are about to reach the horizon.

But it’s still dark down here in Hoffman Park at about 11,500 feet. The sky overhead says ‘first light’, but down below the ridge, everything says, ‘why the heck are you up so early’?

Beyond Bananas – Beeline to treeline

September 4, 2022September 5, 2022E Sharp

29 August 2022

13.5 miles on foot

Starting elevation 9606 ft; Highest elevation 12,935 ft (3942 metres)

We’re making a beeline for the treeline so we can head up higher to that sweet spot: the tundra.

There really is nothing better than being alpine and doing a ridgewalk across tundra and talus on the continent’s western spine.

Beyond Bananas – In the clear on the Continental Divide

August 22, 2022E Sharp

18 August 2022 (21st anniversary of moving to Oz)

13.something miles.

Starting elevation 8930 ft. High point 11,970 ft.

First light is back there somewhere. Its dim illumination of earth had just started to spread over the Arkansas Hills as we headed west. But the light has not reached this cleft in the mountains yet. It is dark and moist and COLD. It was only 42F when we left the house, and we are about 1000 feet higher here.

Still, I’m moving quickly up through the thick forest, each crunchy foot fall drawing me higher. It’s 6am when my dad drops me off at the trailhead. And it’s 6.15 now as I follow Fooses Creek uphill. I’ve got a couple miles to walk up a rocky track before the trail proper starts. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!

Beyond Bananas – Hitting the trails

August 20, 2022September 5, 2022E Sharp

3, 9, 12, 17 August

Like all parents, mine indoctrinated me. They planted the seeds. They fertilised the seeds.

They took my brother and me hiking on many Sundays in our youth. When our friends and family were in church pews in Bible Belt Indiana, our family was out hiking the trails of the state parks of Indiana.

My brother and I would race ahead, sweating and swatting bugs in the humidity of summer or kicking through thick leaves in fall. We were always instructed to wait at the signposts at the next trail junction. When our parents caught up, my Dad would unfold the map and show us where we were and where we could go.

This all helped to instill in me a love of maps and the great outdoors. (It didn’t really stick for my brother)!

Beyond Bananas – Rides and Hikes Around Salida

August 19, 2022August 20, 2022E Sharp

July/August 2022

10-20 miles or so at a time on the bike – 3-14 miles or so at a time on foot

I sat around. I hung out with my parents. It was slow and sedentary for that first month in America. It was okay, I had used a whole lot of energy in May and June wrapping up work and that section of life. A bit of rest and relaxation was in order.

But then… that level of couch potato was just too much. I have energy again. I want to use it. And I want to build a little bit of fitness, so that jumping on the bike when I get back to Oz is not quite so painful in those first weeks. Plus, people come to places like this for ‘high altitude’ training. Let’s take advantage of that.