Welcome To The Camp...

I was talking to someone, the other day, about mountain biking. I used to do a lot of mountain biking and, in fact, moved to Colorado primarily because of the off-road riding possibilities.

I think I've been on a mountain bike about 10 times, this year.

So what happened? Did I get tired of it? Nope I still love lung-busting climbs and twisty singletrack.

Lack of time? No more so than when I biked incessently.

No, what happened was, like the Who's Tommy, I became "aware". I became aware that loading my bicycle up into a truck which gets, on a good day, 15 mpg and driving across town to get to a trail was really not in keeping with my desire to be a good resident of this green Earth.

I ride my bike whenever I can, and my motorcycle most other times. The truck has become a vehicle of necessity for me. I drive it when I have no good alternative; when I have to take the dog (Jack) somewhere, or haul boxed bikes or a load of paver stones somewhere. And, every time I drive it, I wish I was using some other form of transport. (I really want a sidecar for one of the motorcycles!)

So, it just seems selfish to me to load up a vehicle into a vehicle just for my own recreation.

I don't mind it, so much, if more than one person is going. Carpooling lowers the impact of the drive; even though the trip is still frivolous, I suppose.

I know a lot of my friends don't understand this. They think I go overboard with things, sometimes, and I probably do.

But, I know too much about the effects we are having on this planet. Peak Oil, Global Warming,
Iraq War, Russia's Resurgence (as a power bankrolled by oil exports). All of these problems may be overstated by a large margin, as some would have you believe. But, even if they are overstated, they still exist.

Does it make a difference, really, if the peak in oil production occurs in 5 years, or 20? The point is, it's coming, and our lifestyles are accelerating it.

Sure, one guy driving less may not help a great lot, but it doesn't hurt.

I wish I could just go back to the old days, when I was unaware of my impact on the world. I wish that I could not feel that every little effort I make is a small bit of help in mitigating the damage done daily by the car culture we have developed.

To paraphrase Cypher, in the Matrix, I really wish I had taken the blue pill.