Thumper Turns 100

Today was a good ride - pushed it on the RaceTrack at Ft. Lewis, Area 21, setting a new personal best at just under 45 minutes.  Ran into Ken and had a nice introduction and chat.  Agreed to hook up for a ride when he comes through Bend, my soon-to-be new home.

But the real reason for this post is that I got home and decided to catch up (several months behind) on logging my rides off the Garmin.  Turns out today was the "century" ride - # 100 - on Thumper, my Specialized StumpJumper.  I am pretty much just a week-end rider, so it has taken almost two years (a month shy) to hit 100 rides (Gee, I guess that adds up at 52 weeks in a year.  Duh!).

Total stats are 100 rides, 155 hours in the saddle (moving time), 1,078 miles traveled, 91,000 feet in elevation gain (at least that sounds impressive), all at an average speed of 7.0 mph.

What those numbers don't convey is the amount of joy captured, stress unloaded, and companionship enjoyed.

All thanks to my riding buddy John Specht  (aka Girlfriend, as my wife calls him), who introduced me to MTB and very patiently rode with me as I improved over the years.  The Garmin does not capture it, but I would bet that 800 of those 1,000+ miles were ridden with John.

Thank you, John.  Happy trials and looking forward to sharing my new "home trails" with you when you come to visit me in Bend (soon and often, hint, hint).