Well Enough Alone

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I've made it a point this summer, to spend more time this summer on my bike, riding to or from work. This is a sort-of tradition for me that I started years ago after I graduated college. My aunt had given me a Jeff Gordon themed mountain bike the summer before my senior year. I spent the whole year riding "rainbow bike" around campus before it was stolen a few days before graduation. Later in the summer, my old roomie Ben spied it at a party and got it returned to me. So, I took that bike and rode it out to Rural Action, up in the Athens County hills on chilly mornings. Sometimes, dogs chased me as I went past their houses, literally nipping at my heals.


Now, I have a Bridgestone RB2, a Japanese steel, road warrior, and this summer I've been riding the back roads up to three times per week. It's a good ride, mostly back roads, up and down through the floodplains that drain into Jordan Lake. But, it is hot! In the heat of a Piedmont summer (95 degrees, full sun, and humid), I sweat buckets on my bike. I would look forward to my turn from 751 to Stagecoach road. The forest (labeled a public hunting area by a few signs on the roadside) was so dark, deep, and cool. It was a wonderful respite on my ride. I was stunned, therefore, when the north side of the road (in the star on the map above) was clear cut one evening as I drove by. I'm imagining some housing development replacing that lush wood. I just can't understand, though, what's so bad about just leaving a nice wood well enough alone?

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