Almost Counts This Time
Mud, Rain, Winning
Yesterday threaded together nicely, which felt like a minor victory given how these things usually go. At noon I slipped out for a walk around Silver Lagoon, the little children’s fishing pond tucked into Missoula’s east side. The turtles were out doing their thing on a submerged log, stacked up like they were posing for a nature magazine, completely unbothered by anything happening in the world. Hard not to respect that energy.
Got back home, knocked out the rest of the afternoon, and then Snuggles arrived early, which meant we actually had a chance to get the bikes out. One of our first rides of the year, maybe second. We climbed University Mountain Access Road, cut across the midsection on one of my favorite trails, the kind that makes you feel like you earned something just by showing up.
The trouble started on the descent. Somewhere through the gut of the mountain, the sky made a quiet decision and raindrops began tapping our helmets. Not dramatic. Just persistent. By the time we rolled back to the truck, we were damp in that specific way that takes longer to dry than you expect, and the bikes had collected a generous coating of Missoula trail loam, the dark, not-so-clingy kind that gets into places you forget exist.
Back home, neighbor leans over and asks the obvious question, wanting to know if we had stayed dry. I turned it over for a second. Thought about the lupine-lined trail on the way up, the big ponderosas standing quiet in the trees, that brief window before the rain arrived when everything felt exactly right.
“Almost,” I said.
May 29th, Always Becoming
Twenty-two years of May 29ths, and Bill has been racing, riding, speculating, and tinkering his way through all of them. From a rainy Montana road race to a possessed Trek Fuel to a tiny wooden figure discovered behind the oregano, this date has a habit of delivering the unexpected. Some dates just have a personality.
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