Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Why the hype?

I read a neat bit on MTBr.com the other day which was about a guy who did a real epic mountain bike tour. Erik Schlimmer rode from Canada to Mexico using several trails, Arizona, Shoshone, Great Western, and Great Divide. That is awesome. He has also done some other really neat adventures. What bugged me about what I read was the hype. The title was "Rider Establishes Longest Mountain Bike Route In America." I just don't get where anything was established. He linked together several existing venues and had a great adventure. Should this be "The Western States Mountain Bike Route?" Why the horn tooting? I once kayaked from Lake Ontario, along the Erie Canal and Hudson River to the Intercostal Waterway, the Delaware-Chesapeake Canal, and the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis. Did I "Establish" a new kayaking route, or just take a boat trip. Maybe If I mark up a couple of maps with the route and hawk them on the internet, it will mean I established something.

Does Kent Peterson's ride from Washington to Montana and then down the Great Divide MTB Route count as establishing a new route? It too used some paved roads to link together a route to the divide start, and although I don't recall the exact numbers, I believe was farther than 2600 miles.

Why did this even set me off? Mabe I'm just over sensitive today, but this type of ranting is what blogs are for, right? Maybe I just want to do a ride like this for myself.

Maybe this week I'll establish a new route for bike commuters to use to get to Frederick, MD, or maybe I'll just bike to work.

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