going mountain biking with Pete

Well, we weren't going to spend the entire day admiring Pete's handiwork around the home, so we suited up for a mountain bike ride up a local mountain. At first, I felt conflicted as I could see my old friend Mount Wilson in the distance, which is a fine climb on a road bike. But you can't do the same things in life over and over again, you have to try new things, you have to be interesting. So with no small amount of hesitation, I threw caution to the wolves and hopped on Pete's bike. He road the big rental bike from InCycle.

Pete's bike has a mind of its own. It shifts when it damn well feels like it, so you have to anticipate well in advance of a shift. The front tire was quite old, dry, and checked, and I was hopeful it would survive the adventure. Keep in mind William the Younger gave me wise counsel. He had no concerns about me getting up the mountain, but he warned me that on the descent Pete was likely to be the Mad Bomber and I was to step aside and show him the respect he deserved.

And that's as it was. Climbing the mountain was not a problem for me. I picked a line, tired to follow it, and within a few minutes, the internal climbing mechanism came to life and the tock tock of climbing a mountain on a road bike is not that different from the tick tock of climbing a mountain on a knobby tired beast.

If there was a ski lift to the top, I suspect Pete would taken the lift up and just bombed down the mountain a couple of times because the Lord did not make him to climb. The Lord made him to go straight down. He was taking the single tracks and carving the corners and frightening the poor pedestrians who found themselves in the path of a 6' 1" 200 pound monster swimmer bearing down on them with maximum enthusiasm. I was the Captain of the Slow Kids Descending Team and I survived just fine.