A Good Run

Thirty-two years ago we decided to plan our new bicycle store...Bodfish Bicycles and Quiet Mountain Sports. We had been operating as Outback With Bodfish for ten years before that..."The graduate school of bicycle touring". We had also put a lot of effort and research into publishing our own bicycle guidebooks...Butte Country Bicycle Journeys, Cycling The California Outback, Cycling In The Shadow Of Shasta and California Dream Cycling. I loved hand printing the narrative and drawing maps...very low-tech but satisfying on so many levels. Chester needed a family bike store. We were right across the street from a bookstore and a coffee house and a Saloon...Old Town Chester, an entertaining section of downtown Chester, California. Well, we had a good run! The bookstore, the coffee house and the saloon have been empty for more than a half-dozen years now. The bicycle store has plugged along without them. Not easy, the changes have come on at lightning speed. The new Asian tariffs of '18 ran prices higher, the Covid pandemic scared shoppers and dampened the enthusiasm for gathering at the coffee house, Internet shopping boomed and Amazon was the easiest place to buy books. The 960,000 acre Dixie Fire blew through Plumas County in 2021 radically changing outdoor recreation opportunities. Adventurous cyclists from the more populated areas of California chose to explore elsewhere. Still, the bike shop plugged on...profit was not our main motivation...we were a service oriented business. We wanted to keep everybody rolling on two wheels. Now, age has caught up with us and we are thinking that with the time we have left we would like to play more and worry less. The whirlwind of economic uncertainty continues to play havoc with our 'peace of mind'. so, it's time to fold up the tent and bid everyone 'Namaste'.

Bar Mentality

When I was a youngster my mother and her new man (unofficial step-father) loved to "Go on a drive", the five of us kids (from a variety of pairings ) thought this would include a swim and some frolicking in a park or along a lakeshore...we were excited. Invariably a stop for a drink, a country bar, would come into play. I, being the oldest, was assigned the task of 'keeping the peace" in a hot station wagon amongst the five of us. Kids were never allowed in these drinking establishments. It was never easy and it often left us thinking that we didn't like each other's company. One drink led to two drinks and often three while our guardians got involved in conversations that helped them lose track of time. When they returned to the big old station wagon, never less than an hour, we were feeling beastly and somewhat cheated out of a pleasant family afternoon. The parents were often a little toasted and arguing about some stupid conversation that took place in the saloon. It seems that everyone in the joint was complaining about, well everything...from fishing regulations to road construction to union dues. Drinking and smoking and conversing never made things better.

Offroad Bicycling Pioneer

A couple came into the shop while I was busy talking to one of my 90+ year old customers (who was glacially slow at asking me a question about electric assist bicycles). The man was explaining to his partner, "This guy should be famous. He was one of the earliest to promote off-pavement bicycling in North America." On the side, I heard that and wanted to say, do you think I'm 150 years old? But, I was waiting for my 95 year old cycling enthousiast to finish her question about e-bikes. It turned out that she wanted me to buy her e-bike, "My son says I have to stop riding two-wheelers." They were a patient couple and they pretended not to eavesdrop on my discussion with my nonagenairian retiring cyclist. Minutes later, I agreed to take her bike on consignment and she left with a smile. The man discovered my Mountain Bike Hall of Fame plaque near the cash register and said, "See, he was there in the beginning." His partner asked, "Why did they induct you into this group?" Early off-road bicycling promotion was what I was told. However, I explained, in the late eighteen hundreds all the cycling was on dirt. Me and a handful of writing/ off-road cyclists should be called New Age off-pavement cycling promoters. It was late in 1973 when I submitted my columns to a Kern River Valley newspaper describing my unusual forays into the hills surrounding the Lake Isabella region. 'Outback of Bodfish' was the name of my twice-monthly column.

Awesome Dog

Our Labradors, thirty years worth of Labs, have been awesome friends. We obtained the first in '94. his name...Hunter, he was from a 'Show Dog' lineage and we scooped him up from a breeder in Medford, Oregon. He was a pretty boy but not very brainy. Next, we adopted a Black Lab from a different breeder in Medford...named her Naja, she was the classic Bicycle Shop Dog. She greeted customers and chased frisbees through our parking lot seven hours a day. She was a real 'daddy's girl'. Our current Black Lab invests most of her time with Lisa...she's totally tuned-in to mommy's needs and movements. She lays down to perform Yoga with her at least three days a week. Her name is Nori, "Like the seaweed". In 1994 we said, "every boy needs a dog". Now, thirty-one years later we believe "Every human needs a dog".

We All Have Angels

I know 'The Great Spirit' is real. I don't know what God is. You can't learn 'it' through books or websites, Everybody loves a good story. My story is not better or more accurate than your story. As I walk through the green woods accompanied by my Labrador, my third Labrador over the last thirty years, all of which walked these same trails with me...I realize; We all have Angels. Angels are protecting us. Angels are cheering for us and rooting us on. They did the same when they were walking on this green earth. Almost all of us have had fans who wish us well and wish the best for us in all of our endeavors. These souls do not just disappear. I believe they hover above us, sometimes wagging their fingers trying to warn us but, always pulling for us. My Labrador angels keep me safe and alert on every hike we take, "Watch that rock, duck that branch. Is that dead tree about to fall? Keep your eye on it. There's a big cat in the woods to your left, just keep walking." It's so reassuring to know that we all have angels.

Losing Friends

One of the shocking side effects that comes with living into a fourth quarter century of your life is losing friends... Did I pay close enough attention to our last few conversations? ...Was I really listening to words and body language?... Was there a plea for help? In your seventies you don't lose friends due to contrary political perspectives, even if you disagree. You don't lose friends because they stood you up on planned adventures. You realize people are going through a lot of different complications...one day good, one day not so good. We have learned to forgive often and repeatedly. I've had some of the same friends for fifty or more years. We don't see the world through the same or similar sets of eyes. We react to what life throws at us in a multitude of different ways. But, we still consider each other as friends. When one of us expires, we all grieve...and say, "Damn, was I really present during that entire friendship?"