Thursday, January 15, 2009

Embracing Winter

This week, here in the western side of Massachusetts we're seeing low's in the negative single digits, and highs in the low to mid teens, not counting wind chill. The better part of a foot of snow covers everything but road, sidewalk and parking lot. Lanes are narrowed by the snow and vast amounts of courage is required to brave the weather, courage I don't seem to have.

Instead, I've been expanding my winter horizons. Saturday was a night time snow storm hike up Mt. Toby and back with a friend. Our boots crunched their way through the packed trail to the top and back. The views were minimal but it was a great experience.

Sunday afternoon saw another hike but with snowshoes after the late night snowfall, my first time with them, up Mt. Skinner with my new housemate Paul. We picked the steepest parts of the slope to test our snow shoes, really a combination of snow shoe and crampon that digs into the ice with sharp spikes.

Tuesday was spent sampling groundwater wells, a sixteen hour day of lugging awkward shaped objects around a field and getting drenched with cold groundwater.

Last night saw the toboggan in force, down "Hospital Hill" a good dozen times with two friends.

I guess I'm starting to feel that embracing winter sports and weather works out much better for me than trying to stay on the bike all season, through the numb fingers, toes and face. My bikes aren't going anywhere, and things will be much more enjoyable if I can pick and choose the days that I ride.

That said, I'm off to buy some boots for the nordic ski's my aunt gave me, and a warmer pair of gloves.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Cycling and Adventure

When I was much younger, I always loved stories of adventure and historical fiction. Looking back now, I realize that living such an easy life of a suburban child lead me to reach out for things outside school, friends and family. I loved books like the Redwall series, the adventures of a group of animals in a medieval setting, so much so that I was reading a hundred pages a sitting before my 10th birthday. As a teenager, video games slowly but surely replaced this need for something more exciting than the never ending repetition of New Jersey suburban living. I even did some online role playing games, as well as adventure video games. The biggest part to me was not knowing what would happen next. I never tried to predict the ending to books, movies or games because I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Eventually it became more of an addiction than a hobby, and I now see I was an escapist. I didn't like my status in life; not athletic, not popular, not hansome or confident, not especially intelligent but just that funny dorky kid. All these things were things I wasn't, so instead I turned from books to video games to become someone else while convincing myself I didn't want those things.

Five years ago I started riding a bike, mainly for transportation around Philadelphia; the city I came to for undergrad, mainly because of the school and my brother who lived there also, though we were far from close. I say riding a bike because I wasn't a cyclist; I rarely rode for fun, and my longest trips were a few miles to Old City and back. Soon I started taking more of an interest in it, mainly the mechanical aspects which fascinated me as an engineering student so I began volunteering at a local bike co-operative to learn to and teach others how to fix bikes. Before I was really riding a bike for the sake of riding, I already knew how to overhaul anything on it, as well as what were considered quality components. After supplementing my knowledge with the internet, I finally bought a real road bike, a Miyata 310. My friends did messenger races in the city, so I started to as well and realized how fun riding could be.

Over the next few years riding evolved into 20 mile rides, to 40 mile rides centuries, 200ks, to a 2,000 mile bike tour last summer. Today I realized that riding was fighting my addiction to video games. The more I was into cycling the less time I spent on the computer as well as reading to an extent. Today I hardly play at all though the temptation is always there. The reason for this is the adventure inherent in cycling has overcome my need for escapism. I no longer have anything to escape from, the worries of childhood are gone. I have good friends, and given the time and the motivation my legs can take me almost anywhere I want to go while having all kinds of unexpected adventures along the way. There are so many unexpected things that could happen, from crashing to feeling great, to meeting someone on the road or finally breaking that personal best.

Just like a video game where the more time you spend the better your avatar gets, the more you ride the faster and trimmer you become. As evidence of this, I was once 190 lbs Freshman year and last fall I weighed a trim 152 lbs at 5' 9". I see physical evidence of the time on my bike in the size and definition of my legs, as well as increasing average speeds on common routes. Goals are set and broken and the same feeling of rewarding is there.

The part of my personalty that feed it's self on video games has been converted to cycling, and I hope I never go back.

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"The uncaculated life" is an Alan Watts reference. We tried to plan for everything but in the end things outside our control will always dictate. Instead, we should try to live an "uncalculated" life, not a life free of planning but a life with the understanding that not everything can be planned for. This blog started out for my PCT thru-hike in 2013 and has branched off to include other adventures and gear reviews.