Essay: On Reading Mountains

Have you ever read something so tough, so intense, so true, that you had to shout? I just finished The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. The tension of it uncorked my throat and I threw out a coarse yell, both frustrated and elated. Shepherd writes of the Cairngorm mountains in north west Scotland. She wrote the book in […]

Essay: Always Talk to Strangers

The sun’s throwing that hazy afternoon, postcard skyline up around Lake Merritt as I bike into the Lakeview branch of the Oakland Public library. There’s some grown-ass white folk snogging on the front steps. She’s blonde, he’s bald.

Postcard: Fogbound in Marin

Off-pavement riding through fog in the coastal headlands of Marin.

The Truly Random Winner of Big Pink the Tall Bike is…

I am proud as heck to report that raffle ticket sales for Big Pink the Tall Bike raised $259.75 for Climate Ride! and… KATIE STYER! YOU ARE THE WINNER OF BIG PINK THE TALL BIKE! Katie is the truly random winner of Big Pink. Now I know what you’re thinking. How totally non-random is it […]

The Bikemommas of CycloFemme

The fearsome, awestriking part of bikemomma is that she expects to eat shit, get up, and try again. She expects her flock — her kids and her community — to do the same.

Monroe Truck Trail: Riding Singletrack On Home Turf

Within days of coming home, I was dreaming of dirt. Of shredding familiar canyons, portaging the streams and picking poison oak out of my butt. I unloaded my bike, put in a load of laundry, and headed for the hills.

Forgive me bike-gods for I have sinned.

It’s been three months and one concussion since I’ve gone mountain biking.

I met Scott Duffy the ER Doctor and MY FRIENDS SAVED MY ASS

Our adventure began at Katie’s house in the Mission. I have next to no memory of any of this, because 12 hrs later, I’ll be on my way to the ER with a dented helmet and amnesia. Ride with me as I ask the question, What the hell happened?

I met Scott Duffy the TV Doctor and He SIGNED MY ASS

Note from May 30, 2012: This is pure confabulation. Jump to the next post for, if not the truth, then a very loose approximation!

Grrrl gets off the Internet. Rides mountain bike.

While I wasn’t doing anything radically political this weekend (like smashing the right wing, the 1%, and patriarchy in one swell foop), I did meet a dozen guys, and one gal, for a mountain biking hammerfest at Skeggs Point.