Old rider retires

imported post

Years ago, I climbed mountains in Washington and Oregon with a great man; his name was Gene Prater and he was renowned in Mountain Rescue circles and had invented the modern metal-framed snowshoe.....

One day he picked me upin marginal weather for a snowshoe hike in the Cascade Mountains. As a cold rain sluiced down upon our cagoule wrapped, shivering bodies, I asked, "Gene, why the hell are we out here on a day like this?"

"Well," he replied. "I go out in bad weather, too, because someday I won't be able to go at all!" This statement proved sadly true when he died a few years later long before his time.

I've never forgotten that day or that statement of his... and I don't waste one minute of time when I can help it. The day I put the sidestand down for the last time won't be a sad one if I rode when I could... whenever I could... rode even under less than ideal conditions.

Ride, my friends, ride......ride today.....don't delay joy....we aren't ever promised tomorrow.