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wilderness
I’ve come to see mountain biking as the bridge between urban and rural … city and wilderness. Due to sheer population density most mountain bikers live in a city whether large or small. What that then means is the continual travel from the city to the backside of nowhere to ride. We leave the comforts of city life … access to amenities, services, and the pulsating rhythms of constant activity … to replace with the quiet remoteness of a trail.
What is it that keeps us coming back into wilderness areas for more? We leave the supposed safety and comforts of our homes, our towns, our cities, and we plunge deep into the wild to pedal, explore, bikepack, or bomb down hills on shuttled runs. Why? Is it the insanity and sterility of living in the city that propels us outward? Is it boredom and the need to someway somehow put our lives ever so slightly in harm’s way? Whatever the reason, the wilderness calls.
Do we listen?
Everything around us in life reflects value systems. As I mentioned in a previous article I also moonlight as a professor. The common theme of what I teach revolves around cities whether gentrification, bikeability, community development, urban history, and so on. That might be odd admission particularly in the mountain biking world, but I love cities. I love BIG cities. But I also love the wilderness.
