I’m feeling like typing, obviously!
I rode a trail I have neglected for a long time the other day. In fact, I’ve ventured down it twice in the last week and a half. It has drawn me in, with a subtle mixture of technical intricacy and moments of unity with the trail, the bike, the air.
So far, I haven’t managed to keep the bike between me and the dirt on it yet. But I’m compelled to go back. Its a problem and a solution in itself. The solution will come, but the problem will still remain as challenging and interesting as it was at the first attempt. Its almost like rock climbing at your limit – the problem will only be solved when you’ve found that unity of body and mind in the moment, applied at the exact time and place. Like climbing, its not just one moment – a series of connected moments, requiring that unity to be carried through from one to the next.
And having found that unity, and carried it from moment to moment, there’s nothing to stop it being carried from day to day, from year to year. The enduring peace of a mountain bike trail.