Motivation and finding reasons to spend more time staring at a screen has been hard to come by. The social media frenzy has been driving me to insanity. At first, I felt compelled to keep up with the constant stream of content, creating it myself, or following others on their soft adventures. Racking up the followers and likes. I tired to play the game. Now I realize this game isn't fun. I don't have to play to do what I do. It's a distraction from reality, from really experiencing life outside. It's self promotion, it's showing your life is always awesome and there are no hard knocks, no challenges, no failures- that's boring and easy.
Some go on one adventure a month and snap 100's of photos that will swarm and clog their feed until the next month's adventure. Social media is total smoke and mirrors. I'm working on leaving it behind, except when I'm taking a shit. Pondering thoughts while releasing the brown trout is where social media belongs. It's a time sink and a waste of brain power, unless it's your job and you get paid for it. I get that. But, I wouldn't even want to do it in exchange for free product and to be 'sponsored'. I'd rather get a bro deal and not owe any companies my time. I don't personally know many of the people I follow, except in a digital form. Why let their posts stir up emotions in me and squander my energy. It's fake news. Social media can make me feel like I'm not good enough, don't get outside enough, don't take on hardcore adventures. But, that's all bullshit. Instagram and Facebook are bullshit. Social media has homogenized adventure, created track followers and diluted life.
I try not to lead a homogenized and dilute life. Last week @jahkief and I embarked on the Dirty Hippy 200. We rode this loop the same day as the Dirty Kanza 200, so deemed the name appropriate. It's a ride I've been dreaming about for a couple of years. A daunting one on paper- 217mi and 12,000ft of climbing through the Colorado high country. We departed the East Vail house at 6am, rolled over Vail Pass, descended into Copper, crushed the highway to Leadville, got super high on Independence Pass, shopped for fur coats in Aspen, stuffed our faces in Basalt, thought about jumping in the Colorado River in Glenwood, then got the slow grind on all the way back to East Vail, arriving home at 10:28pm. What a fucking day. I only had enough energy for one IPA at the end, then I had to lay down, that was the biggest defeat of the day.
I'm not sure if anyone has done this ride in a single day, and don't really care. It felt good, it was freedom and I only took one picture along the way- perfection. Focus was on the ride, not on social media and showing the world how not-rad I am. To me there is no greater freedom than rolling on the bicycle. It's been that way for me since I was a kid, since taught myself to ride with out training wheels at the age of 3. While this freedom hasn't made me rich with money, it's taught me how to live without boundaries. Simplicity, focus, courage, independence, survival of the lows, thankful for the highs. Bless Up to Kiefer for wanting to do dumb shit like this. It's always fun to suffer with a friend. Like all of my time outside we made sure to space out and stay high.
It feels nice to write down a few thoughts and words after a lil hiatus. It's a bit therapeutic for me. Adventure on my friends and don't worry, even if it's not on social media, it still happened. BE KIND TO EACH OTHER.
