I have done this bikejoring thing - have been running dogs
in harness before me while I was on a bike - for 30 years now.
I have run on dirt roads, gravel roads, have ridden in residential areas,
on city streets, and down the sides of highways.
I have run in meadows and in glacial valleys in Washington,
on fire breaks in Southern California, on back roads in Wyoming,
up county roads in Colorado. I have trained in 60 degree temps,
in mud, in rain, and in blizzard condition snow.
And...I ask myself: "WHY do you DO this?"
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I am a person who likes to be by myself a good deal of the time.
I like quiet, also. And there are times when I feel the need to calm my mind.
I have found that running the dogs with the bike is my answer.
Bikejoring is my Zen. It is my way to connect to the source.
That's the only way I can describe it.
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I can see the rising sun.
When would I take the time to get up before sunrise,
drive out to some isolated place, get on a bike,
and cover 8 or 10 miles before the sun came up?
When would I be motivated to do that
if not with the dogs?
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When would I take an evening off and drive
out to an isolated area, hook a couple of dogs up,
get on my bike, and spend
5 or 6 miles, and an hour or so, watching
the sun go down?
When would I do that?
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I have seen the frozen ricefields in Arkansas. And felt how
cold it gets. I have watched hundreds of migratory birds
fly overhead, seen hawks, egrets, and blue herons.
I have watched as the sky turned
to shades of red-orange, salmon, coral,
electric blue, gray blue, purple, and cobalt.
With the dogs
I have seen the wonder.
And I have touched the silence
of the earth's breath.
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