Mountain Biking: Retaining Childhood Memories

If I ever been asked about the most achievement I proud of during my lifetime would be riding bicycle. Think of it as a skill with high difficulties, since I have to maintain speed and balance to ride it. Failure in maintaining body balance will resulting in one unfavorable situation, fell off. Inability to keep sufficient speed will resulting in the same unfavorable situation as well, fell off. Hence, riding bicycle requires specific skill for sure. Glad I learned this when I was a kid, so that I have another choice of outdoor activities: mountain biking.

First time I learned to ride a bicycle, I fell off for many times because of many different factor followed by one reason, that is unable to keep my balance. It left bruises on all over my body. Not to mention, ran over bushes, slipped into the gutter and slipped from the seat (the last one did not leave bruises, but it was really hurt on the butt). The most notable accident was when I rode down the hill too fast as I can no longer control the speed, I hit bamboo trees before I knew it. It was not only hurt me, but also broke my bicycle. As part of learning process, I think all these accident were happened on every bicycist at least once.

I learned some tricks with bicycle such as front-wheel standing, back-wheel standing and no-hand cycling. The easiest way to pull up front wheel is by using lowest gear setting. Therefore, I will be able to maintain balance by winding the gear fast. Back-wheel standing could be done by combining sudden front-wheel brake and moving weight toward the front wheel. While no-hand cycling requires good bicycle with stable body.

Mountain biking, even it is using bicycle, doesn’t give much chance to pull out some tricks I mentioned above. The challenge of mountain biking is more about encounter obstacles rather than wheelie actions. The track mostly covered with dirt as opposed to hard paveway. Maintaining control is more important in mountain biking. The best part of it is the natural surrounding as I rode across pine tree forest.

What to Bring for Camping

My friends called me last Monday to know if I would willing to join them for outdoor camping this weekend somewhere in upstate NY. This offer is just to tempting to be skipped. Moreover, after I checked the camping site location. It is a small island in the middle of wide lake. We are supposed to canoe across the lake to get to the camping site. Sounds like a lot of fun there. How would want to I miss this one? Not in this life. The next big question would be what to bring for this outdoor camping vacation? I loaded my duffel bag with swimming gear, bathing gear and thick hoodie with thermal gloves. Here is why I bring those stuffs.

Bathing and swimming equipment are important since the camping site lies in the middle of a lake. I would expect to spend most of the time enjoying fresh water. Well, since it will be in the middle of nowhere, I may swim naked. Nobody would mind anyway. However as a civilized person, I choose to wear my jammer-style suit and goggles. Not to mention that it might be cold and dangerous to swim without proper swim wear. Things might happen.

Hoodie and thermal gloves will keep me warm during the night because the weather report says it will be cold there. Since camping is almost literally translated as staying over night in a tent, I would expect even colder than I thought by reading the weather report. Because I used to intepret the report from what I feel inside building, I might have different idea of how cold would 60 degrees are. Thus, suitable warm cloth is really important to survive during the night in the tent.

Be prepared is a key to enjoy the trip. I can’t wait until I warm my self in front of wooden campfire in the site. Hoodie and swim wear warrant a joyful but comfortable moment in the campsite. Because my swim wear will allow me to enjoy the fresh water, while my hoodie will keep me warm during the night. What else could make me worry? none.