Edit: put some words up on MTBR, for context.
The reason the memories from the trip have ripened so quickly is just how much ambition and uncertainty were built into it’s conception. That is, I’ve decided this year, the real thing I want. All the best days in the field, all the best trips (RATS, Royal Arch, C2M, D2D/SBFL, last weekend) were all the biggest “can I do this?” moments. I like being fit, I like “racing”, I like rides where their entirely is suffused with competence (KTR this year v. last), but it is uncertainty above all that is really worth looking for.
That will I think become my main operating objective in the year to come. The endurance moments in any ride; this past Saturday afternoon when I wasn’t sure I could make Flag before dark on the southern route, switched, second-guessed, and generally lost my will to go on. All overcome, and on each of the three nights that have followed I’ve slept the better for it.
It’s also worth noting what an amazing tool the mountain bike is for moving through terrain. I can’t envision a more pleasureable (in the meaning-infused, dirt in your nose sense) way of seeing what I saw this weekend. Especially Sunday. The Flag-GC route was a bunch of magnificent, varied, and interesting terrain transitions that make the riding all the more elegant.
I am afraid I may need a new saddle, tho.
Bedrock & Paradox 
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