I just spent 9 days on the most epic trip I have ever been a part of. I hung out with my best friends in the world, swapped stories, quoted youtube videos, and ate a lot of food cooked over an open fire. We rode over 130 miles on over 15 trails in 2 states. I took hours of video and spent hours editing and re living the nonsense we captured. So why is it now a few weeks later I can’t put a few simple words on a page to talk about the trip I spent so much energy time and money on? I have been regularly sitting in front of my computer and staring at a blank word document. The rest of my blogs have flown out of my brain and onto the page with no work necessary. Talking and writing about bikes is fun! It’s something I can easily put myself into. So why is it now so hard? I started really putting thought into why I can’t come to describe the epic-ness of my trip.
On any sort of epic trip, or at least the trips I am a part of we always have multiple inside jokes, and stupid little nuances. I have found it hard to translate the fun we have with a stupid phrase or an inside joke to any of the info I have written yet. Our seemingly random banter and ridiculous, constant quotations of “The Honey Badger takes what it wants!” Or accounting the time we ruined Breakfast because we cracked all the eggs into one pot and the last one was rotten inside. Stuff like that does not make for interesting reading. The epic riding and amazing experiences on the trail is what I feel like the public wants. But how do I express how amazing it was without all that BS thrown in the middle? It’s like making a pizza and forgetting all the cheese. The stupid jokes and the random quotes, the inside jokes and the pranks is the cheese that sticks to all the toppings. It binds the trip together. It’s all connected like that really long strand of cheese that refuses to let go.
Don’t get me wrong, I can write about how beautiful the mountains were and the views that go on forever. But I can’t make you feel the gratitude for the people around when I was experiencing it. I can Tell you about how gnarly the whole enchilada was, but I can’t make you feel the thrill of chasing Jerry Hazard down a ridiculous line, surrounded by boulders and a 300ft drop off into the Colorado river. I wanted to express it all so badly, I gave myself a sort of writers block. Every time I started putting words to paper it seemed so empty, and hollow. My words felt like concrete coming out. I wanted to be excited and let the words flow. All they did was get stuck on the way out and block the way for the rest. I kept coming back to all the times we spent around the fire, sharing a meal and talking about the day. The Nicknames we gave each other. How dirty we all got, and how nobody wanted to pay for a shower. That’s where my head was at, and that’s what I wanted to express. So instead of me wasting your time and mine, putting empty words to a page. I wanted to explain myself. On this trip we saw some amazing things. We rode some world famous trails, and cleaned some stuff that we would not normally try. We saw the amazing views, camped in a beautiful landscape, and lived the dirtbag dream for just a few days. But to me all the views and trails were nothing compared to the time with my friends. The stupid jokes and rest is what really made this trip. Contrary to what most people would have you believe. Mountain biking is more than the ride the trail and the bike. For me it’s the little things that make this sport worth sinking all my money and time into. So if you want an account of the epic-ness you need to look elsewhere. You can’t get that from me. I suggest going out and making your own experience. All the little stuff makes the views better, the food tastier, and the memories sweeter. If you still don’t get it……well “I guess you had to be there”
