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not mtb, but way hardcore!

976 views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  lil' minx 
#1 ·
We passed a fellow heading up the mountain on a heavily loaded road bike yesterday, which is not unusual here (northern NM mountains), however, when we saw him a couple of hours later he was struggling with a steep section and we offered him a ride to the top. He accepted, and when I helped him load his bike into our truck, I discovered that it was loaded with at least a hundred and fifty pounds of gear. He got into the cab with my girlfriend and me and, with a charming german accent, introduced himself as Paul. He informed us that he had just stopped at the local hot springs where he had taken his first hot bath in eight months. This was a bit unusual even for our area so we began to ask questions.
Paul, it turned out, was on the last leg of an epic ride from his home in Calgary Canada, to the Panama Canal, and back. He had crossed the continental divide something like fourteen times, and had at least one more to go. All of his gear for this trip was loaded onto beefy homemade racks, and his bike showed every mile he had put on it. We gave him a ride over the mountain to Los Alamos because; a) we were headed that way anyway, and b) he had only one brake on that bike and the descent into Los Alamos is very hairy on a bike that has disc brakes and isn't loaded with 150 plus pounds of gear. We left him with a couple of tangerines, a couple of our hand rolled cigarettes, and our best wishes. I have no doubt that he will make it home to Calgary before winter.
Oh yeah, two other things, Paul is fifty eight years old, and this whole trip came about as the result of a bet. Someone bet him a dollar that he couldn't ride canada to the canal and back on a twenty dollar bicycle. Hardcore, eh?
 
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#3 ·
his bet is safe

Hardline said:
Looks like you cost the man a dollar because he did not ride the whole way. :D
Well, when I offered him a ride (this is the girlfriend speaking) he asked how many miles we'd be taking him. I told him about a total of 30, and he said that would be ok, but he didn't want to ride in the truck any more than that because, after all, this is supposed to be a bike ride!
I told him I sure wouldn't let anyone know he'd ridden in a truck for 30 miles of his treck because I didn't want him to lose the bet!
 
#7 ·
Zignzag said:
Bet him a dollar he couldn't ride naked through the front gate of Los Alamos National Lab.
That is an inspiring story, thanks for sharing! I grew up with 2 kids, (a brother and sister )who's parents made them ride to Alaska with the family (summer vacation, of course). ON BIKES. They rode Huffys with homemade denim saddle bags loaded with granola and such. Yep, they made it, with only flat tires and broken spokes along the way. I don't think they have forgiven their parents to this day. Did I mention that this is not a family of slim athletic types? An understatement, that.

Being a hippie kid was fun. Ah, eccentric parents who wanted us to experience 'adventure as a rite of passage.' You gotta love that. Maybe we had to eat tofu dogs, but we got to do some crazy cool ****. :p
 
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