Mountain Bikers' Middle name Is "Irresponsible"
Mike Vandeman
This Mud's for You
The Joys of Biking on the Wild Side
By Katie Arnold
I HAD BEEN WARNED. "It's gonna be wet out there!" Grant Mitchell
announced at least four times during the five-minute van ride from the
upcountry town of Waimea to the Mud Lane turnoff. After nine years at
the helm of Mauna Kea Mountain Bikes, Mitchell had ridden the Big
Island's most technical singletrack countless times and could afford
the upbeat tone. But where I live in the parched and dusty Southwest,
mud is an exotic novelty. I had come with him to reacquaint myself
with mud's unlikely charms—the way it splatters off your tires and
shellacs every inch of skin and clothing and bike, and brings a sense
of grimy triumph to each precarious pedal stroke—and to meditate on
one of mountain biking's most sacred mantras: Mud makes you cool.
Tucked into a dense swath of rainforest at 2,500 feet, high on the
flanks of the lush Kohala Mountains and across a broad saddle from
13,796-foot Mauna Kea, Mud Lane exists in its own biosphere of mist
and rain. The day of our ride, Mud Lane did not disappoint. It had
been raining steadily all morning, and the trail was a veritable Slip
'n' Slide of muck and mud. After only a few minutes skittering down a
washed-out jeep track—over a minefield of branches, rocks, and
puddles—the mire was flying and our disc brakes were squealing. By the
time we forked onto the three-mile singletrack loop, we were utterly,
satisfactorily filthy. Threading our way through Norfolk Island pines
and guava, koa, and waiwi trees, we tackled a thrilling series of
tight roller-coaster turns, rain-slicked roots, low-slung branches,
and gullies thick with mud. Had I not been so intent on staying
upright, I would have whooped with delight.
If I was a little rusty in the mud, Mitchell was an old hand. Six feet
tall with burly quads and forearms, he powered along as though he'd
custom-ordered every rock, drop, and root on Mud Lane. Which, in fact,
he had. "I helped build this trail," he informed me as we stopped to
admire a particularly impressive drop-off that one of us had just
ridden flawlessly. Mitchell, 40, moved to Hilo from southern
California in the 1970s, got into mountain biking, and teamed up with
surfboard innovator and notorious Big Island eccentric Gordon Clark
and other locals to help cut Mud Lane in '86. These days, Mitchell
leads rides across the Big Island's wildly varied terrain and works a
handful of jobs to stay ahead on a Hawaii not yet overrun with
tourists. "I lived on Maui once," Mitchell said, "but it was too
crowded."
Indeed, Mud Lane was our own private trials course that day. We'd had
eight miles of epic, technical slime to ourselves—and later, before
hosing off in Waimea, I paused to inspect the evidence: a few bruises,
a head-to-toe dousing in Mud Lane's finest, and a huge smile.
--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!
Kayak44
Michael J. Vandemans international flights have contributed more to
global warming than an average person who owns an automobile
contributes in years.
Just two of the trips he took by commercial airlines in 2001 and 2003
emitted as much carbon as someone who owns a car emits in 5.4 years!
That figure is just for Michael Vandeman ALONE. How many other
"environmenalists" flew there? The total global warming emissions
emitted by these people traveling by air is MASSIVE. Keep in mind
that's just the CO2: the total warming effect of CO2 +
H2O + NOx is about 3 times greater!
It's amazing that selfish people like Mike refuse to use alternate
means of transportation to these conferences. He wants others to stop
mountain-biking while he does hundreds of times more damage to our
planet. What a selfish hypocrite.
Opus
And both of you are nuts! Mountain biking is not as bad as Mikey makes
it out to be. Sometimes you have to fly to get somewhere, especially
overseas. I would love to be able to ride my bicycle to my old house
in Wahiawa HI, but I live in TX now. If I want to see the old 'hood I
have to fly.
Both of you get over yourselves!
Kayak44
> On Apr 13, 2:32 am, Kayak44 <s200hondas...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Apr 12, 9:53 pm, Mike Vandeman <mjva...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> > Michael J. Vandemans international flights have contributed more to
> > global warming than an average person who owns an automobile
> > contributes in years.
>
> > Just two of the trips he took by commercial airlines in 2001 and 2003
> > emitted as much carbon as someone who owns a car emits in 5.4 years!
> > That figure is just for Michael Vandeman ALONE. How many other
> > "environmenalists" flew there? The total global warming emissions
> > emitted by these people traveling by air is MASSIVE. Keep in mind
> > that's just the CO2: the total warming effect of CO2 +
> > H2O + NOx is about 3 times greater!
>
> > It's amazing that selfish people like Mike refuse to use alternate
> > means of transportation to these conferences. He wants others to stop
> > mountain-biking while he does hundreds of times more damage to our
> > planet. What a selfish hypocrite.
>
> And both of you are nuts! Mountain biking is not as bad as Mikey makes
> it out to be.
Mountain-biking is nowhere near as bad as Michael Vandeman makes it
out be be, that's common knowledge.
>Sometimes you have to fly to get somewhere, especially overseas.
I don't have a problem with anyone flying anywhere, but I do have a
problem with a mental case crying about phony environmental problems
when real problems exist.
>I would love to be able to ride my bicycle to my old house
> in Wahiawa HI, but I live in TX now. If I want to see the old 'hood I
> have to fly.
Have at it, wouldn't bother me in the least.
> Both of you get over yourselves!
Back at ya!
Mike Vandeman
wrote:
>On Apr 13, 2:32 am, Kayak44 <s200hondas...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Apr 12, 9:53 pm, Mike Vandeman <mjva...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>
>> Michael J. Vandemans international flights have contributed more to
>> global warming than an average person who owns an automobile
>> contributes in years.
>>
>> Just two of the trips he took by commercial airlines in 2001 and 2003
>> emitted as much carbon as someone who owns a car emits in 5.4 years!
>> That figure is just for Michael Vandeman ALONE. How many other
>> "environmenalists" flew there? The total global warming emissions
>> emitted by these people traveling by air is MASSIVE. Keep in mind
>> that's just the CO2: the total warming effect of CO2 +
>> H2O + NOx is about 3 times greater!
>>
>> It's amazing that selfish people like Mike refuse to use alternate
>> means of transportation to these conferences. He wants others to stop
>> mountain-biking while he does hundreds of times more damage to our
>> planet. What a selfish hypocrite.
>
>And both of you are nuts! Mountain biking is not as bad as Mikey makes
>it out to be.
If you have scientific proof (I know you DON'T), show it. Otherwise,
shut up about things you know nothing about.
Kayak44
> On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:35:19 -0700 (PDT), Opus <opusthep...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >On Apr 13, 2:32 am, Kayak44 <s200hondas...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Apr 12, 9:53 pm, Mike Vandeman <mjva...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> >> Michael J. Vandemans international flights have contributed more to
> >> global warming than an average person who owns an automobile
> >> contributes in years.
>
> >> Just two of the trips he took by commercial airlines in 2001 and 2003
> >> emitted as much carbon as someone who owns a car emits in 5.4 years!
> >> That figure is just for Michael Vandeman ALONE. How many other
> >> "environmenalists" flew there? The total global warming emissions
> >> emitted by these people traveling by air is MASSIVE. Keep in mind
> >> that's just the CO2: the total warming effect of CO2 +
> >> H2O + NOx is about 3 times greater!
>
> >> It's amazing that selfish people like Mike refuse to use alternate
> >> means of transportation to these conferences. He wants others to stop
> >> mountain-biking while he does hundreds of times more damage to our
> >> planet. What a selfish hypocrite.
>
> >And both of you are nuts! Mountain biking is not as bad as Mikey makes
> >it out to be.
>
> If you have scientific proof (I know you DON'T), show it. Otherwise,
> shut up about things you know nothing about.
Shut up? Oh my, must have hit a nerve.
You and I both know the facts and in the words of Michael J. Vandeman,
"do your own homework".
No spin that you put down is going to change the facts, and those
facts are that you, Michael J. Vandeman have traveled a number of
times on commercial airlines to environmental conferences and those
flights do more to hurt the environment than mountain-biking ever
will. You yourself have contributed more to global warming by flying
than many car owners will ever contribute.