It’s only pain. How long do you expect to live, anyway?
Jodi Friedlander
This isn’t my first rodeo. I hope it isn’t my last.
Me
Surlys are safe at home, but that’s not what Surlys are for.
A slogan for my bike brand—and life
Leading up to this tour, I felt as if the forces of darkness were arrayed against me–foot surgery that took too long for us to manage the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route; then I discovered I had a hernia. What the what? Fortunately, the doc figured I could do the ride and get the surgery later. Then there was the carcinoma behind my ear… You get the picture. Turning 60 has come with a satchel of fun that I had not anticipated. I felt like I needed to make a statement, assert my athletic self in an unambiguous way, a role that I felt the Great Divide was supposed to fill. Now this.
For the third time, I set out to ride from CA to AZ, but this time it was payback. The horrific traffic I experienced riding pavement of the last round could not be the final word on this terrain. The new bike, the big aggressive tires–why not skip lots of the pavement and go rogue? A new path was born, and a few hours of working with Lord Google revealed the way–a tougher, more remote access to Death Valley, a tougher mixed surface escape, a new, wilder traverse of the East Mojave, a complete bypass of the Lake Havasu development nightmare. And so it would be.
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