Well, I may have to do some serious work to get this ride in. Rain today, rain tomorrow and wind Friday and Saturday. I want to go climb Mt. Pisgah. I want the epic and the story that goes with it. I want the scenery and the vistas and all the memories. David Wilcox writes a song, "No Telling Where" from the Airstream album that goes:
On the map it shows the mountain, but I’d never seen a glimpse
Of the hundred miles of vista represented by an inch
That was just a trail of bread crumbs, all their words set out so clear
But there’s nothing they could tell me that could ever take me here
To this view - this height - that the heart remembers
It’s proof - It’s life - It’s the burning ember
My words - go cold - and there’s nothing to explain
There is just no telling where I’ve been
When this sunrise sees me
The first light burns brand new
Seems so easy
To tell what I’ve been through
But my little camera can’t keep up with panoramas all around
There’s just too much view to capture when we stand on sacred ground
Though my mind cannot explain it, my heart’s filled up to the sky
I know words could not contain it, but I’m fool enough to try
In a way that perfectly describes both why I want to ride to places I've never been and what that blog is to some degree. I show you my pictures but unless you've ridden the roads it's hard to understand, at a really deep level, what I'm writing about. I can tell you how much the climb over Hooker's Gap yesterday pushed my body and made me wonder why I decided to climb an road with way too many things I wasn't sure about. Would the pavement run out? Would a dog come out and chase me while I was riding a 7 mph up a steep section of the hill? Would my legs give out before the mountain did? Would I make a wrong turn and get lost with no sense of how to get back? Did the pioneers and trappers think these same thoughts as they were pushing west using the sketchy maps of those who had gone before them? Did they fight the little voice in their head that told them to turn around and return to the roads they knew? Did they fight the doubt and fear by focusing on the sense of excitement and anticipation that came with the unknown and a belief in their abilities?
No matter what I write, I don't think I can really tell the story the way it needs to be told so that you can get it. I can just leave metaphors and pictures of "panoramas all around" and hope that maybe you can follow where I've gone in whatever way has validity in your life.
The picture comes from the valley between Hooker's Gap and Newfound on Newfound Road on yesterday's ride. I almost rode right past it but then I realized that the sign had my wife's maiden name on it and that the barn was really cool so I decided to stop an take a shot of it. The sun wasn't in the best position but those are the breaks.
Thanks for Reading.
