John Forrest Tomlinson said:On Mon, 06 Nov 2006 05:11:10 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:Tools you should carry on any ride you want to ride back from:
That premise is strange, at least for me.
I want to ride back from every ride. Whether it's worth carrying all
that stuff for incidents whose occurence is remote is another story.
For me the answer is "no" to some of that stuff -- I can beg it off
someone else, or buy it nearby on a ride, or give up on riding home.
I may want to ride home, but taking a train or cab or calling a friend
once every five years or so is tolerable.
I live in a populous area.
Dear John,
Ah, regional variation!
I live in a populous area, too, at least as far as folks around define
populous. Here's a view of the crowded conditions on my daily ride:
http://server5.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=336a_yellow_leaves.jpg
or http://tinyurl.com/yndrc4
A train? I suppose you mean those things that carry coal. They stop
about twenty miles away at the Comanche power station. The tracks are
about a mile north, over two no-trespassing signs on barb-wire fences.
A cab? That would be one of those yellow things with four wheels. They
can't get past the padlocked gate about a mile back, and probably
couldn't find it in the first place. Only maintenance workers are
allowed to drive out here. (There really is a dirt road over to the
right. You can't get to the area on the right--that's a gravel pit
that closed a while back.)
Calling a friend? If I carried a cell phone on my daily ride so
clients could pester me, that might work. Probaby not--poor reception
out there. Otherwise, the nearest land-line phone is--
Hmmm . . . about two miles back is the Nature Center, but it's mostly
closed. Might be someone there in the summer with a cell phone to
borrow. Climb up on the bluffs and it might work.
About two and a half miles ahead is the ticket hut at the dam, but
they don't have a phone at the hut, just a radio that they often say
can't be used because the rangers are responding to emergencies.
Besides, it's only open from 9 to 5 in the summer. The rest of the
time, you're supposed to use a self-serve machine to buy a state park
pass.
Of course, I could ford the Arkansas River and climb a few fences and
walk up the highway and see if my retired dentist is home, about half
a mile away. He built a house out at the bottom of the steepest part
of my daily ride, where I come back into town on the highway.
Beg whatever I need off someone else? Most of the people I see are out
for long walks and carry no bicycle parts or tools. Neither do most of
the people I see on bicycles--you can tell by the lack of any bike bag
and the fact that they're pushing their bikes back to town. Besides,
most of them are Schrader-valve mountain bikes.
Of course, I don't go out in desolate places. Here's the Empty
Quarter, northeast of Pueblo:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=16&Z=13&X=44&Y=332&W=3&qs=%7cpueblo%7cco%7c
The lines look pretty, but they're just dirt roads. Ain't nothing out
there. You'd probably have to go quite a ways out into the Atlantic to
find that kind of peace and quiet and elbow-room around New York.
(Switch to the aerial view, and you'll see some rectangular and
circular crop fields, but most are abandoned and the rest grow by
themselves in summer.)
That's out on the prairie and infinitely dull.
The other way, southwest, is the Wet Mountain range. I go out there,
but I go with a friend, tools, and spare parts:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=15&Z=13&X=77&Y=656&W=3
From Beulah at the top, you can drive south and west over to the
Greenhill Divide on a dirt mountain road called Twelve-Mile-Cutoff to
Highway 165.
Ain't nothing west of 165 but trails for hikers, horses, motorcycles,
and bicycles.
Ditto for east of 165.
No phones, no homes, no cell-phone reception. No cabs, no bus, not too
much traffic on the highway.
Beulah is about 400 people and a convenience store in a mountain
valley. Fairview to the north is a ranch at the foot of the Greenhorn
road, which winds south down the far side of the mountains to the
Greehorn peak. (We tend to name road intersections after ranches as if
they're inhabited--"Fairview" sounds grander than that ranch with all
the buildings falling down at the foot of the Greenhorn road.)
San Isabel to the south is just a log-cabin fish-bait shop at the dam
that creates a silly little mountain lake. If you want help, you'll
have to climb up out of that steep mountain watershed and then walk
down to Rye, about 15 miles. There are homes, but most of them are
summer vacation homes and usually empty even in summer.
I think I'll carry some tools, tubes, and a spare folding tire.
But it's always interesting to hear how other people live. Trains that
you can ride home in! Bike rides where you can call cabs! Flush
toilets and tall buildings!
Cheers,
Carl Fogel
