The Friday flashback

I am prone to nostalgia, of a time when my body did most whatever my brain wanted and recovered without a heating pad, ice, and a ln increasing amount of days off. While some may not look back and laugh, I usually do. It helps that I get daily notifications from OneDrive that further this nostalgia by prompting me to view photos I have downloaded to one or another device. It’s an interesting history to view these daily updates where I can see what photos were taken on that particular day over the last 25 years. It started when I started using a digital camera, the Elph, around 2000. I rode and skied with it in a quick draw holster on my shoulder strap so took almost as many pictures as I do with my iPhone, almost.

It’s a bit creepy how Microsoft has “found” all these photos on my various laptops and phones and downloaded them to the cloud…but apparently I gave them permission to do so, probably? It’s similar to Google photos that was previously Picasa that was linked to Blogger where it kept the photos I posted to blogs, and I created photo albums of bike tours, hut trips and other events like the Intergalactic Singlespeed Championships. While Google doesn’t send daily reminders, I can search out photos and see what comes up and even make a hard copy photo album as a present. This post is not sponsored by Google or MS, truly.

Seeing this photo I’m instantly brought back to my favorite method of getting to work. Riding from my house and jumping in and out of the various trails long the way before dropping the 2,300ft in elevation to Boulder and rolling into town like we just got away with something. And lots of times we did. Some winter days it was brutally cold and windy, emptying out our packs at the drop to put everything on to stay as warm and dry as possible. Riding in the dry cold with a few inches of snow on the trails is something I really miss. Starting the ride in the dark and riding into the sunrise is simply the best way to start a day. In summer we’d take a longer route in, getting up super early to get to work on time but stuffing as many miles in as possible. Then hop on the bus after work and pedal the last few miles home, or sometimes I’d ride back up and get home as the sun went down, shelled and satisfied.

The photo above was a favorite cut-across that took out a portion of road that is not safe in winter with cars and slick roads traffic but added some time and hiking. The bike is a Spot singlespeed set up as a 69er (29” in front, 26” wheel in back). This was before fatbikes were on my radar, by at least 5 years, and the trails were not packed by anything other than our friends tire tracks, coyotes, elk, bobcats, and foxes that usually got fresh tracks. You could tell which of your friends beat you to the punch that day by the tire tracks left in the snow, “Oh that’s Timmy! He must have to get to work early.”

These photos will live on in the ether whether I look at them or not. What’s the point of saving these digital memories? Like this blog, they’re all I have to remind me what I did with this life and hopefully inspire me to keep taking photos while rolling and sliding.