more excerpts from 6/23/06

Friday evening and Jen is whimpering bad. At Mike's request I take my leave. Its not my place to intrude or interfere. I came here for two reasons, to help fix the house and to launch my mission. I thought baby time would happen well past my departure date so I was content to linger and soak it in.
Mike asked me to skidaddle, which I did, mounting my bike I just rode until whaddaya know another trailhead. It starts out tame and I'm thinking this will be a leisure cruise. By and by it gets rougher and starts to climb. I probibly shouldn't continue, I've loaded myself down with way more then I need but I gots the fever! So I climb...and climb. The trail crosses several brookes where snow melt runs in spring. These are some of the lushest areas of the mountain. I stop several times to soak it in and photgraph the super saturated greenery. Crazy beautiful. And I keep climbing. Higher and higher and I love it 'cause I have no idea where I am. There's something invigorating about being in a situation completely foreign to your cumulative experience. I was alone, on a mountain preparing to blaze down at break neck speed for nothing but the love of it.
The path drops suddenly and then cuts left as it flattens out. The soil here is loose and sandy just before the wood bridge with the low rail capped with steel. My bike hits sand and skids wildly. I jerk back to counter but I'm not considering my handlebar bag which is throwing my steering out of wac. I have no traction and my face is b-lining for the steel cap at the end of the rail. Quickly I make my peace with my maker and prepare myself for lifes greatest transition. Suddenly God reaches out his gnarly fingers and brushes me aside. I narrowly avoid a collision with a material much denser then myself and behind me death howls in rage, cursing my name to oblivion.

excerpts from 6/23/06

Mike took me on my first mountain bikeing adventure today. What a riot. Never in my life have I had so much fun bringing my self so close to death. I have to admit I was ashamed of myself at first. On the way up the trail I kept losing control, losing balance, losing momentum, having to dismount and walk my bike up. The path was steep and the terrain very bumpy with large stones and thick roots almost a constant. Mike showed me the line where others had traveled creating the path of least resistance. This was helpful but I still ran into sticky situations that caused me to dismount.
We came across some other riders who were walking up which gave me courage to proceed. As long as I wasn't the only pussy walkin' his bike maybe I stood a chance in this arena. We made it to a bridge traversing a stream in a high mountain valley and it was time to turn back. Jen was waiting with lasagna and a belly full of baby. We began the descent. That shit was straight treacherous. It took a little bit to get a feel for what kind of and how much abuse my bike could handle. I know now that my Schwinn Moab II, whose been with me for a decade and is my soul sister, my familiar link, is built like a tank. She rallies, bouncing over root and rock, and catching her grip where a thinner bike might fail. She cradles me in her arms of steel, clutching me tight through the valley of the shadow of death. She never let me fall as we barraled down that steep mountain pass. I soaked in the fresh, rich air, the babbling brooke that ran with us and the gnarly pines that sank their roots into rock oh so tenaciously. It was beautiful but to take it all in you had to be completely on your game, fully aware and able to swallow it all. Admittedly I was scared on the way up, but coming down I was hungrey for my own death.
At one point, after having acquired a sense for my abilities I was ready to rockit hard! I'm still surprised by how much of a beating Moab can take, but I shrug and just let her kick. The land is dropping and ahead of me there is a rock followed by a root. I plow through jumping both in rapid succession. Suddenly I'm careening towards a gnarly pine that seeks only to impale me. In midair there is little opportunity to alter direction yet I manage to drop my weight away from certain death, narrowly avoiding the opportunity to never see the light of day again. Fuckin' sweet.

Sundown over a mountain lake. This landscape takes my breath away. It's wild, sweet and cool. Stoic, the mountain defies modern man, challenging our convictions about lifes possabilities. Out here you are confronted with her naked face and you turn away, ashamed, wishing you could represent, yet knowing full well how you still bear the sins of the fathers. Wish in one hand, shit in the other, which one fills up fastest?

excerpt from 6/19/06

It's good to be here. Friday June 16th I'm lurking about Madison, feeling salty about not biking to Bozeman especially after telling everybody I would. Lame! Saturday morn I'm onna plane, leaving the flatlands behind. Before the day is through I'm hiking up a mountain! Very surreal.
This is Big Sky country and it is beautiful! The weather is perfect, sunny and seventies all day cooling down to forties at night. Flawless!

intense week

Whoa dude. Its been an intense week. A lot o'shit has gone down, and I'm sorry but I've been too tired/busy to update. I'm mostly going to be free handing in my journel and reporting excerts online. A breif rundown: I arrived in Bozeman, MT a week ago by plane. Since then I have been helping brother Mike and Sisinlaw Jen with some remodeling projects around the house. Its a good launch pad for my up coming journey, I've been taking some intense mountain rides to get acclimated to the altitude, more on that later.
Yesterday Jen gave birth to a little boy and made an uncle out of me in the process. His name is Thorston (they're taking a vote on wether his name should be spelled Thorston or Torston, I think you can see how mine was cast) Nikolas Hornemann and he looks like a funny old man. I thinked he's stoked to be here.

Shwaaaar!

Aloha Amigos!
Its been a long time since I rapped at y'all, I know. I beg forgiveness. However nothing much new has happened so...I've been spending my time securing my flight plans. I leave Sat. morn for those misty peaks of Bo-Zone Montana. I'll be kickin' it with me bro' and me sisinlaw, who is heavey with child, for about two weeks before they kick me out. Don't wanna stress out mama bear during baby time, oh no. I'll probibly truck out to Whitefish MT to visit my friend Dana from college. From there I either head north for Canukland or back down to Bozeman to fulfill uncular duties.
Lately I've been rollin' around Madtown trying to soak up some hometown culture before taking what may become a very long trip. Check out some of my photos of the rad happenin's Madison has to offer. The first one is an aerosol painting (some would call it grafitti) on the side of Mother Fools coffee house on Willy street. They offer up the wall to grafitti artists every month, so the image changes around. If its legit/legal is it still grafitti? Who knows.
The two birds are welded from scrap metal and stand roughly 30ft. high. Rather impressive but if like his stuff you should check out Dr. Evermores sculpture garden off Hwy12 on the way to Baraboo. The Forevertron holds the record for biggest scrap metal sculpture.
I found this turtle on my walk through the woods today. He was stuck in the mud so I helped him out.
These ducks looked real cozy so I took their picture. They're the trusting sort, didn't seem to mind me approaching closely.
Allright. That's all for now. When next I rap atcha I'll be in Big Sky country. Peace!

Lame!

Sandbagged!
Yesterday I went on a trial run, fully loaded with all my gear. A little late in the game seeing as I wanted to depart for my trip by Wed. but that's me, always the procrastinator. I found out the hard way that carrying a frame pack on the back was not the way to go. I'm sure anybody could've told me this but I wouldn't have listened anyway. About an hour into my journey my wrist was going numb and I thought my spine was going to collapse. There's no working through that feeling, I was toast.
So I'm going to have to alter my plans significantly. I think I'm going to either fly or take a train out to Montana with in the next couple of weeks. This will get me to Bozeman faster then I originally planned. I'll be able to spend more time helping my brother fix up the house and prepare for babytime (uncle Petey, I love the sound of it)and for me to acquire some much needed gear to replace my current inadequecies.
Trust me, nobody could possably be more disapointed then myself but I do fully intend to continue my journey from Bozeman on to VanCouver, Seattle, Portland and wherever else the wind blows. Be good, stay in touch and do good work. Petey out.