|   S+J or WRX? Rapidfire or Celly? Rigid or SUV? | Stick
Oct 25, 2001 11:01 AM | | 1993
The door swung open and, tentatively, I stepped inside. A string of bells smacked the glass pane on the door and announced my presence with a clatter. Golden autumn sunlight poured through the front window and reflected off of tiny dust particles scattered throughout the place; each spec a tiny star swirling through the bike-shop universe.
The shop itself had seen better days. The carpet was bleached by the sun and looked as though it had seen 20 yrs worth of foot traffic. The floor was sunken; an oval track around the bikes on display. Most of the bikes were unimpressive but functional. Campus bikes for college kids. Kids bikes for college townies. Random outdated components littered display cases whose glass was blanketed with settled stardust. I looked at them for a while until the shop's proprietor appeared.
He was a curious fellow. Like most of the folks who made Kutztown their home, he was Pennsylvania Dutch. An odd air about him, both jovial and austere at once. He looked a lot like his shop. Old and weathered...like he too longed for better days.
I told him I was new to the area, and I was looking for trail info. He explained that he wasn't a mountain biker and that he spent most of his saddle time riding the hills around town. He produced a stack of cue sheets; road routes that had been marked by the Lehigh Valley Wheelman's Association. Though I had little interest in road riding at the time, I took one of each, folded them and stuffed them in my pocket.
Since I'd just bought my first 'real' mountain bike a month prior and had done little to customize or upgrade it, I decided to purchase an accessory that (at the time) was almost mandatory for 'real' mountain bikers: bar ends.
Not expecting much, I asked the old Dutchman what he had in stock. Imagine my surprise when he produced 2 Onza boxes and 1 Answer. I opted for a pair of polished L-bend onzas. I thanked the shopkeeper for his time and for the cue sheets and headed back to the dorm.
I immediately installed the new bar ends and couldn't wait to find a place to try them out. The bike instantly appeared more serious; hungry for dirt. I imagined myself flying up technical climbs w/ ease now that I had the proper equipment. Heh.
But where to go?
I didn't yet know anyone on campus who rode, and didn't know of any nearby trails. So, I pulled the cue sheets and maps from my pocket and took a look at them. There was one that caught my eye. It was the 'Lake Ontelaunee' loop. The shop owner had mentioned something about riding his horse on some paths by the lake, so I thought it might be worth the trip.
According to the map, the lake was only 6 or 7 miles from campus. Seemed much longer at the time. The cue sheets led me through some very picturesque fields where I learned a valuable lesson...wind sucks. The ride started out very nice with lots of sun and just a little breeze. Once I was out in the open, surrounded by miles of corn and soybean fields, it was a different story. The wind blew across the fields with incredible force, gusting at times and forcing me to lean into it to remain upright. Then, the road would turn, forcing me to pedal straight into the wind. Very tiring.
Eventually, I left the fields and pedaled with a large hill on one side. Thankfully, the wind subsided. I looked up the hillside at dark patches of evergreens and imagined riding down on a ribbon of singletrack, twisting through the trees. If this hill was an indication of things to come at the lake, I was definitely heading in the right direction.
When I finally reached the lake, I was a little disappointed. The only obvious trail was a wide, flat piece of flooded doubletrack. Where it wasn't totally submerged, it was muddy and broken intermittently by large smelly puddles. Having ridden all the way there, I figured I'd at least do a little exploring. What's a little mud, right?
Once I got going, the trail began climbing a mild grade and things dried out considerably. My perseverance was rewarded. To the left, the ground sloped down toward the lake at a steep angle. This provided a nice view of the lake itself and the colorful foliage on the opposite bank. To the right, large trees and massive outcrops of shale loomed overhead.
b Autumn @ Lake Ontelaunee
The doubletrack crested, and I began spinning down the other side of the hill in the big ring. As I approached lake-level again, there were several rolling 'whoops'. Caught a little air going over them, then the trail turned hard to the right and began to climb a steep loose slope. The bar ends worked great and I found it much easier to keep my rear wheel hooked up on the climb.
The doubletrack kept going for another mile and a half or so, then it just dead-ended at another parking lot. I was so bummed. I didn't see any good trails on the way in.
Somewhat disappointed, I turned around. Descended the loose hill and stopped at the bottom. Instead of taking the same doubletrack out, I opted for an overgrown, grassy slope that looked as though it would lead toward the top of those shale outcrops I'd seen earlier.
Climbing up the grass was a pain. It was soggy and slow, and my shoes were drenched almost instantly. I rode around aimlessly through what appeared to be a maze of hunting grounds bordered by private property. Several of the trails I descended were dead ends that inevitably terminated in someone's cornfield and/or backyard and I'd have to backtrack. Then I found it...
As I was cruising down a long, swoopy descent; a carpet of leaves that seemed to go on forever, I spied a tiny gap between two trees that looked like a trailhead. I shot through the gap onto a little piece of singletrack heaven! Though by today's standards it would be considered VERY tame...to a beginner at that time it was AWESOME! No more than eight inches wide, the trail steepened at an alarming rate and had a series of quick turns. If I'd missed a turn and gone off-trail, there'd have been much pain as I surely would have nailed a tree or gone over the bars on the loose slope. But I didn't miss a turn, thanks in large part to the 'amazing' control provided by my 'incredible' canti brakes. (heh) The singletrack ended back at lake level w/ a steep drop of maybe 6 feet that had a large root right across the top. Again, today it's an easy roll; then, it was very intimidating. I got back over the seat as far as possible, let off the brakes, and winced a bit as the rigid chromoly fork on my Trek 820 went over the lip.
Whooosh!
I rolled it and stopped in a pile of leaves at the bottom.
What a rush. I was back on the doubletrack, almost at my starting point in the Land of Muck and Mud. I went back and did the singletrack three more times before leaving.
As the sun began to set, I pedaled back toward campus. I thought about how much fun mountain biking was. I couldn't wait to find more new places to ride. At that moment, I knew for a fact that I was irreversibly hooked on dirt.
I never did get to go back to the shop and thank the old Dutchman again, or tell him of my adventure. He sold the shop to a young guy just a few days after my initial visit. The Bicycle Den is now out of business.
Happy trails everyone.
-Stick |
| Fantastic.... | TNJED®
Oct 25, 2001 11:08 AM | | I'm a little bummed my name was neglected from the attention getting topic line, but nonetheless, GREAT post. |
| Rapidfire, SUV and definitely celly | celly
Oct 25, 2001 11:09 AM | | Great story, Stick. |
| Wait, Wait, Wait!!! | TNJED®
Oct 25, 2001 11:13 AM | | It was rapidfire OR celly you greedy bastige! |
| For those of you not smart enough to figure out when to shut up> | Ken in KC
Oct 25, 2001 11:49 AM | | Jed,
Now would be the time when you need to reflect on your overbearing cyber-presence.... |
| HEY welcome back Kenny..... | TNJED®
Oct 25, 2001 12:00 PM | | you miserable prick.....You haven't been in here all day, and the first two replies you post are ones putting me down....Stop stalking me you freak. I'm not bothering anyone in here, and you just come along and start whining like a toddler.
There are three people in here that perpetually b1tch about me. THREE out of how many? You are one of the three that continuously lower the quality of this board by acting like some cliquey junior high school girl. Go about your meaningless business, and leave me the f*ck alone. |
| Try to spread yourself around a bit... | slowride
Oct 25, 2001 12:11 PM | | There's at least 5 posts you can reply to farther down the page, instead of putting all of them here. |
| wow, I'm underwhelmed.... | Ken in KC
Oct 25, 2001 12:12 PM | | I've been rather busy, and today is the first day I've had the chance to drop in on Passion for a while.
While I agree, that my first posts were related to you, I hardly think that qualifies as stalking.
Additionally, I like the "cliquey junior high school girl" quote on many levels:
1. You are disparaging the entire female gender.
2. Your hypocrisy. Since you won't be smart enough to understand this reference, I'll spell it out for you: "prick, you freak, bltch, f*ck" in conjunction with "...junior high school...."
Please remember that there are a number of folks who tend to ignore you until you get way out of line. Then you apologize profusely for your behavior, and then you start back up again once the dust has settled.
As I haven't been here much in the past month, it seems to me (based on my not being here) that if you were to go back and look at the last round of TNJed uproar, it started with you posting to nearly every persons post until you pissed someone off. I'm simply pointing this out to you. I'm not calling you a "prick" or cussing at you. Simply making observations.
Ken |
| wow, you're undereducated.... | TNJED®
Oct 25, 2001 12:28 PM | | Disparaging....no, girls tend to be more cliquey at young ages.
hypocricy......no, "cliquey junior high school girl" was the reference, not simply "junior high school". Anything can be taken out of context to suit a purpose.
I posted fairly frequently today because it was a slow day here. You haven't been here in quite some time, and it shows. Check the archives, and then come back and rant at me with some validaty. Have a nice weekend, Kenny. |
| Archives from today... | Ken in KC
Oct 25, 2001 12:39 PM | | Look directly below this post.
And then there's the "dirty mexican" subject line. Funny stuff.
Disparaging - Yes. Teenagers are more cliquey due to their age. It doesn't have much to do with gender. I won't bore you with facts, they would just confuse you. Do a search on teenager behavior traits.
Hypocricy - Yes. I knew you wouldn't catch the reference, that's why I tried to explain it to you. You accused me of acting like "cliquey junior high school girl" which infers that I am acting juvinile AND disparaging women at the same time. I was simply pointing out that you, by using a bunch of naughty words, were, also, in fact; acting juvenile.
Now, please shut up, as Shiva asked you to do earlier.
Ken |
| Before this goes to far. . . | Stick
Oct 25, 2001 12:51 PM | | Either let it go, or please take the arguing to a different thread, preferably somewhere in the archives. I hate to have to step in and actually point this out to ya, 'cos frankly I don't care much what people post here...BUT...read Shiva's post below, then think...."hmmmm....how could I be bothering anyone?"
You 'bother' people (in this case) by cluttering up a completely bike-related genuine, bona fide, mountain bike story with (dare I say?) inane drivel about those who pick on you. Then ya resort to name calling and arguing and blah blah blah...it never ends. Next thing you know, the post is a 'train wreck' and everyone is chiming in w/ their $0.02 and you feel even more picked on etc etc etc. In the end, my post becomes secondary to yet another TNJED vs. The World sub-thread AND other MTB-related posts further down the board are pushed off the page that much sooner.
I wouldn't care so much if it didn't happen all the time.
thank you, drive thru. |
| Hey, Stick... | DeRanger
Oct 25, 2001 1:12 PM | | ...great story - I could really relate to rolling through that first drop. Straining to hear that little voice in the back of your head that says, "I think I can! I think I can!"
There's a special thrill of adding that first new component - something about making the bike even a little less stock that just says, "Hey, I'm serious about this!"
Oh, and a very clever topic/title/subject line - gave me a chuckle in its own right.
DeR (Bike-related posts will always rule the roost, and the flame wars are simply an unfortunate distraction) |
| Sorry Stick.... | TNJED®
Oct 25, 2001 2:35 PM | | Didn't mean to deface your post...It was a great one indeed |
| "I'm not bothering anyone in here..." | Shiva
Oct 25, 2001 12:16 PM | | Wrong.
Again. |
| nice story, thanks. (nm) | little b
Oct 25, 2001 11:15 AM | | nm |
| Bike content worth reading (nm) | Braids
Oct 25, 2001 11:30 AM | | I thought it was bull but when I saw "nice story" I checked it out. |
| Thanks, Stick, Nice read. (nm) | Ken in KC
Oct 25, 2001 11:51 AM | | . |
| Thank you. | Highside
Oct 25, 2001 11:57 AM | | Just what I needed. Thank you. :-) |
| a similar story.... | Red Ascent
Oct 25, 2001 12:00 PM | | Your great story reminded me of my own first ride on dirt...
It was May of 1994, and I was wrenching part-time at a bike shop in Millersville, MD. We were starting to get busy, plus I had a full time job, so the owner, Ken, hired another wrench to help out when I couldn't be there. Sadly, his name escapes me. But he was an old-time MTB'er, whereas Ken and myself were old-time roadies. After many discussions, he finally talked me into buying a brand-new Diamondback Ascent, which I assembled my self. Actually, he tried to talk me into an Apex (the same frame I have now), but I balked at the extra $150 (at dealer cost) it would run me, so I went with the Ascent, an all-STX bike (in the first year of that gruppo), chose red over black, and added a set of matching Avenir ski-bend bar ends and a bike computer. I figured it was good enough to get started on, but not so expensive that if I hated riding off road I would be out a bunch of money. The shifters were 7-speed Rapidfire Plus units, and the bike had a rigid fork (a suspended version with a RS Quadra 10 was offered, but I passed on it). My colleague then took me to what is still an amazing place to ride...the Avalon area of Patapsco State Park.
I had no idea what to expect....we started on a long paved climb up under the I-95 overpass (it was early in the AM, and the gates weren't open yet), then down a section of easy singletrack. Suddenly the trail steepened...and he took off ahead of me. I was a powerful road rider in those days, and didn't like being out run...but I didn't know shit about bike handling, and before I knew it, I was flying over the bars on a rocky descent. Surprisingly...I was laughing when he came back to find me, banged up but nothing serious. I wiped out quite a few times that day...but I was hooked. Every fall, every walked section was a challenge to be conquered. The adrenaline rush was like nothing I'd ever experienced before...zooming between tight trees, riding ridgelines, crossing streams at speed, it was all new and all wonderful to me.
We rode a few more times after that, but my job demanded more time, and I worked the shop less and less, helping out at Xmas that year but not much after that. I moved to Odenton soon after, and sadly, Old Mill Cycles folded the following year, so I lost track of my first off-road riding partner soon afterwards. I was going to Avalon on my own by then, and had discovered other wonderful areas - Susquehanna State Park, Arundel, Sugarloaf, and best of all, in August of 1995, the Plantation Trail of Canaan Mtn, WV.
By 1997 I was racing mountain bikes, in 1998 I got my first suspension fork (a '97 Manitou SX-Ti), in 1999 I bought my first duallie and discovered MTBR.com, in 2000 I built my own custom race bike, and in 2001 I took my first trip out West...but with out him, I might never have even considered mountain biking at all.
So......thanks.
Phil |
| Merci, Stick... | JimC
Oct 25, 2001 12:04 PM | | I forgot about Passion, that's a great post, very much appreciated! Jim |
| Nicely done. nm | JimW
Oct 25, 2001 12:06 PM | | nm |
| Work of art!!! thanks nm | Keiko
Oct 25, 2001 1:28 PM | | |
| Thank God for an actual MTB post. | DirtKing
Oct 25, 2001 1:49 PM | | That brought me back to the days of my Giant Rincon. I thought that I was the man on that $300.00 bike. I really wish there were a way to taste that first single track experience again. Cheers |
| reminds me of Breaking Away ... | Shockee
Oct 25, 2001 2:07 PM | | (cept the townies were called 'cutters')
Gotta admit, the rush of nature whizzing by so close was a real turn on for this old roadie when I first mounted a mountain bike back in about 1985. Your story takes me back - thanks |
| Sigh....... | mr
Oct 25, 2001 3:27 PM | | Thanks for a great story! It truly inspires one to ride. :) |
| flash back..... | GnarlyOne
Oct 25, 2001 4:02 PM | | ...ya' gotta love that first taste of singletrack...
(this has been a very difficult day at work, BTW -- thanks for giving me something worthwhile to read on this site -- I needed it!) |
| Great post Stick (nm) | Ska!
Oct 26, 2001 10:24 AM | | |
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