The Other Ride: For Roy. And Water. And Fun

Local group rides are a dime a dozen. In stating that I don't mean to imply that they are rote, or routine, or somehow unfun (assuming there is such a word). I just mean that there are a lot of them to chose from. Every so often though, one comes along that has a little more substance to it, a reason to the ride beyond "the ride," a little extra incentive to make the 8:00 am start time.

This morning's Other Ride was one of those. Sure, all the people I get a kick out of riding with (but do so all too infrequently) were there like they would be on any regular Saturday morning group ride, but today they, or we, were joined by "the cause." The cause, in this case, was Roy who, very soon, will be starting a cross country bicycle tour. While part of Roy's reason for taking on this challenge may be the "because it is there" factor - you know, the "why do you climb that mountain" question; "because it's there," - but another part is because Roy is raising money to help provide safe drinking water in the Central African Republic, through the non-profit organization Water for Good. It is a monumental task addressing a monumental (and hard to imagine as it is, growing) problem around the world.

Anyway, what an amazing combination of fun and greater purpose to this morning's ride. I even got to chase the Claremont High School Mountain Bike Team up one of the climbs in Marshall Canyon. While I have ridden part of Marshall on the Ibis Hakkalugi before, I had never done the entire lower portion up to the dirt road, so am feeling accomplished (some of those 15% downhill sections coming back were a bit much for the old-style canti brakes, so walked those - after all I didn't want to end up back at the brew house looking like Roger). Rather than a Flickr album, this time you will find the photo album on Facebook.

who knew running into a gate post would leave a mark?

Far out! The weekend is already a winner, and we're only a quarter way through it.