RR: Idiot companion on this a.m.'s Group Ride

Every Wed morning I lead this friendly little group ride, made up of a few beginner and intermediate
riders. We go out for an hour or so, try to do something different every time, and I always bring
the singlespeed.

This morning, toward the end of the ride, I had this young fella (we'll call him dhg for downhill
geek) riding my tail with the others back just a little ways. Hang in there readers, this gets good.

So I cut up onto what's called "Chickadee Ridge" a little detour off the main trail that we've
taken a few times at the end of our regular morning rides. I'm in the groove, hitting it fast, make
the climb the top, along the spine, [looks like a lot smaller version of Pete's video for Joe's
Ridge] and I come down at the end, and hook back up to the main trail I diverted from, just a mile
further down.

And I look up and wait. And wait. And then wonder if somebody biffed the climb, or if Patrick (our
real newbie) biffed an earlier descent. So up Chickadee in the other direction I go, and it's all
climbing. It's getting late, but I ride the whole thing back, and back down to where I'd started
half an hour ago.

No sign of anybody. So I ride the main trail to the park where we all were parked, and still, no
sign of nobody. I hop in my truck to drive to the transition spot where I think Patrick must've
biffed it. Visions of explaining to his wife how I got his head split open go through my mind. I
drive up to where the trail crosses the dirt road (the only spot he could have biffed it bad). And
still nobody.

By now I'm getting angry and I feel like I've entered the twilight zone.

So I drive down to the post-ride coffee joint, and there they all are, grinning like fools and
wondering what happened to me.

I grab the dhg and ask him what happened [dipsh!t]? Why didn't you follow me up Chickadee in the
first place? He said, "whoah, dude, I saw that hill and decided no f__ing way am I doing that, so
I stayed on the main trail. Everybody followed me, so we went to coffee, man. What happened with
you, dood?"

I didn't waste an explanation on this airhead, and realized he hadn't even told the others
that I took Chickadee. I was mostly glad to see that everybody was OK, and I was only an hour
late for work.

Jimminy Christmas anyway. Ok, thus endeth the ranting and whining.

Paladin

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 13:56:07 -0700, Paladin wrote:

> I didn't waste an explanation on this airhead, and realized he hadn't even told the others that
> I took Chickadee. I was mostly glad to see that everybody was OK, and I was only an hour late
> for work.

Gah! I will no longer ride with people who do that. My current group (went on 2nd ride with them
this week) is still "on probation" in that dept.

gabrielle (got left behind once...pissed me off righteously, it did)

Paladin <cdbrown@qwest.net> wrote in message news:b9df8744.0307231256.3c28d593@posting.google.com...
> Every Wed morning I lead this friendly little group ride, made up of a few beginner and
> intermediate riders. We go out for an hour or so, try to do something different every time, and I
> always bring the singlespeed.

<snipped some>

> I grab the dhg and ask him what happened [dipsh!t]? Why didn't you follow me up Chickadee in the
> first place? He said, "whoah, dude, I saw that hill and decided no f__ing way am I doing that, so
> I stayed on the main trail. Everybody followed me, so we went to coffee, man. What happened with
> you, dood?"
>
> I didn't waste an explanation on this airhead, and realized he hadn't even told the others that
> I took Chickadee. I was mostly glad to see that everybody was OK, and I was only an hour late
> for work.
>
> Jimminy Christmas anyway. Ok, thus endeth the ranting and whining.
>
> Paladin

Shoulda slapped him up side the head, by way of an edycashun

Shaun aRe - not surprised you were pissed at him.

On 23 Jul 2003 13:56:07 -0700, cdbrown@qwest.net (Paladin) wrote:

>Every Wed morning I lead this friendly little group ride, made up of a few beginner and
>intermediate riders. We go out for an hour or so, try to do something different every time, and I
>always bring the singlespeed.
>
>This morning, toward the end of the ride, I had this young fella (we'll call him dhg for
>downhill geek) riding my tail with the others back just a little ways. Hang in there readers,
>this gets good.
>
>So I cut up onto what's called "Chickadee Ridge" a little detour off the main trail that we've
>taken a few times at the end of our regular morning rides. I'm in the groove, hitting it fast, make
>the climb the top, along the spine, [looks like a lot smaller version of Pete's video for Joe's
>Ridge] and I come down at the end, and hook back up to the main trail I diverted from, just a mile
>further down.
>
>And I look up and wait. And wait. And then wonder if somebody biffed the climb, or if Patrick (our
>real newbie) biffed an earlier descent. So up Chickadee in the other direction I go, and it's all
>climbing. It's getting late, but I ride the whole thing back, and back down to where I'd started
>half an hour ago.
>
>No sign of anybody. So I ride the main trail to the park where we all were parked, and still, no
>sign of nobody. I hop in my truck to drive to the transition spot where I think Patrick must've
>biffed it. Visions of explaining to his wife how I got his head split open go through my mind. I
>drive up to where the trail crosses the dirt road (the only spot he could have biffed it bad). And
>still nobody.
>
>By now I'm getting angry and I feel like I've entered the twilight zone.
>
>So I drive down to the post-ride coffee joint, and there they all are, grinning like fools and
>wondering what happened to me.
>
>I grab the dhg and ask him what happened [dipsh!t]? Why didn't you follow me up Chickadee in the
>first place? He said, "whoah, dude, I saw that hill and decided no f__ing way am I doing that, so
>I stayed on the main trail. Everybody followed me, so we went to coffee, man. What happened with
>you, dood?"
>
>I didn't waste an explanation on this airhead, and realized he hadn't even told the others that
>I took Chickadee. I was mostly glad to see that everybody was OK, and I was only an hour late
>for work.
>
>Jimminy Christmas anyway. Ok, thus endeth the ranting and whining.
>
>Paladin

Guess there's always one in the crowd.

Peace, Bill The mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the mind
should give an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
:-]

Bill Wheeler <billwheeler@mtbingrocks.net> wrote in message
news:<cmivhvshmurbrcgcpt43i73vrebdl3ligq@4ax.com>...
> On 23 Jul 2003 13:56:07 -0700, cdbrown@qwest.net (Paladin) wrote:
>
> >Every Wed morning I lead this friendly little group ride, made up of a few beginner and
> >intermediate riders. We go out for an hour or so, try to do something different every time, and I
> >always bring the singlespeed. Jimminy Christmas anyway. Ok, thus endeth the ranting and whining.
> >
> >Paladin
>
> Guess there's always one in the crowd.
>
> Peace, Bill The mind serves properly as a window glass rather than as a reflector, that is, the
> mind should give an immediate view instead of an interpretation of the world.
> :-]

Here's what's real ironic, though. About 2/3's into the ride I could tell that the dhg was hurting,
so at an intersection, I polled the group (so he could save face) and asked if they wanted to cut
the ride a little shorter, or did they want some more meat to chew on. They all enthusiastically
said "bring it on" "let's go for it" and so on. At that point we'd already done some good climbing
and could have finished up with a decent ride under our belts.

It still amazes me that he would ditch me (the exalted leader) take over like that and not tell
anybody about it, but let them wonder what the heck I had gotten off to.

Well, you learn a lot about people out there. I need to ride more with my old riding buddies, where
I was often low man on the totem pole. Less responsibility. More fun.

Paladin