Death Riders

July 19, 2007

Mammoth has bike riders. Mammoth also has cyclists, which is one step further up the chain. Mammoth also has Death Riders, and those people are my favorites. Last weekend, a strong group of Mammoth locals made the trip to Markleeville, Alpine County, for the famous Markleeville Death Ride. It's a 130-mile "adventure," in the words of Eastside Velo Club poobah John Armstrong, in which the strongest of the strong make a one-day jaunt over five mountain passes, climbing 15,000 vertical feet. Death Riders are crazy, in their way. But they're so goldanged Mammoth about it, that is to say larger than life, it makes a guy like me really proud.

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Summer Rules

July 7, 2007

Everybody showed up this week, so it's time to review the rules around here. 1. No whining. Everyone knows that this isn't summer; it's construction season. Big trucks. Hammering. More hammering. Table saws. A little more hammering. If you're looking for quiet, try Upstate New York, which overbuilt itself many decades ago. 2. No left turns. It's hard to believe that Mammoth can have traffic problems. After all, most of the streets are as wide as airport runways, and stoplights remain something of a novelty. That's actually the problem. SUVs stack up chockablock behind the one Hummer driver who will wait forever to make a left. Be a sport. Turn right and go around the block if you have to.

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