I lived on the South Rim of the canyon back in the 70s for one summer with my family. I was 14 and my brother Dan was 16. We had bikes. I remember Dan had a really fancy one--a Peugeot if I'm not mistaken. Dan has now been an avid cyclist for many years and has been an inspiration for me. I remember him breaking his collar bone that summer on a fall from his bike in the visitor center parking lot. I made a point to visit the spot, which I still remember. I also was thinking back to when Dan was planning to ride his bike down to Flagstaff, maybe 80 miles, and remember thinking that was an incredibly and impossibly long distance for anyone to ride a bike. I was so impressed.
We had a lot of adventures together in the canyon (including the Hermit Trail trip he mentions in the comment below and his dog shitting on my head in Ten X Campground).
Dan is still an inspiration to me and one of the reasons I ended up on this epic trip. Thanks, Dan!
That was a great summer! Errr, well, until my clavicle started hurting when I was trying to carry my bike home to the tent in the dark cuz a chunk of the front rim had broken out on the curb that had jumped out in front of me and was dangling by the spokes (not unlike this participle) . . . and I spent the next 3 weeks constipated on pain meds in a friend's bed. For some reason now I don't think I'm enjoying cycling unless it makes me miserable.
ReplyDeleteKevin took a lot of shit from me growing up, not just that summer. And now he's getting even by doing MY BIKE TRIP.
BTW I loved that dog! His name was Toby.
...and so well behaved.
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