There are Perfect Moments on Trails

No Dabs, 9/7/21

There are no perfect trails. There are perfect moments on trails. 

Perfect trail moments abound when "things" are aligned:

We feel physically well. The cadence of pedaling comes with ease. Our minds are not taxed. We might say that we are "living in the present tense." 

The technology we ride is dialed in, providing us with a feeling of being "techno-human." We are one moving machine.

Whatever is our preferred favorite weather for mountain biking, is happening around us. Light from the morning/afternoon/evening sun in the sky shines on the single track, on the copse of trees, on the meadow of wildflowers, on the sandy sea of cacti, on a bright white canvas of snow in that precise way we cannot explain but do feel. 

We are alone. We are with a riding partner we've ridden with for years. We are with our crew. We are with someone new. The camaraderie is without pretense. 

Trail. Humans. Bike. Nature.

I am up high looking out at Lake Superior, Copper Harbor's late summer lake breeze cooling me. I see a sea of sorts. My front tire points down and I pedal into it, releasing the brakes after coming out of the turn.

Nebo Ridge in southern Indiana is awash in the colors of summer — sun-dappled greens and browns. The spine-of-a-trail dips and bends and climbs, rolling through history, from Native Americans to settlers and pioneers to today's dwellers.

Mescal in Sedona, with that magnificent towering wall in its multitudes of red rock hues, surrounded by never-ending beauty in all directions, traverses pine-forested canyon country like no other trail does. When I ride through the small section of flowering ocotillo on both sides of the trail, I want nothing else.

Way up above Kernville, well before The Plunge, Cannell wanders through the high Sierra. Not all downhill, that big climb not too far after Sherman Pass falls away behind me, my breathing not all that gutted-and-labored.

There are no perfect trails. There are perfect moments on trails.

Perfect trail moments abound when we are aligned.

No Dabs is a monthly column by James Murren that celebrates the mountain biking community and lifestyle.