Losing Control
On the heels of two spring bikepacking trips, we’ve learned many lessons about our desire to share all the goodness of this rolling-adventure-map of a state. We were lucky to have two weekends of good weather, great food, tolerable bugs, gorgeous routes, and truly wonderful fellow riders. In debriefing with the groups, memories were split between re-envisioning open ridges looking out at the Green Mountains and deep-forest roadside streams, and reliving the moments we slid into the cool, conifer-shaded waters of Great Hosmer Pond, or melted into a camp chair in the orchard at Blueberry Hill Inn with live folk music keeping our heads light.
As a career educator/facilitator, I’m constantly battling the bias of excessive love for the content I’m delivering. Most of you probably experience a similar dynamic in something that you do - our passion and excitement about what we share makes it harder to justify unplanned and off-script time. In my case, where I am in charge of a class of 8th graders, the unstructured time can take some daunting twists, but is still important.
When leading bikepacking tours, the dilemma shows up in wanting to share more of the terrain, such as old farm roads strewn with stone foundations, gaps in the ridge between towns, or the smooth sandy river trails that twists through the ferns and silver maples. Time off the bike is a bit less predictable for the guide. The group wanders into an old mill building in Greensboro and discovers a glass-bottomed corral in the middle of the floor that looks down at foaming river rapids below, and a story follows. Half the group naps in the shade after lunch and the other half swims in the Passumpsic River. We find and catalog many obscure species of native baked goods in the local general store. All this recharges the engine, allows us to look around as we climb the next hill, connect with each other as a group when we are tired, and make the culture and landscape we are passing through a piece of our own life story. As I was reminded (not for the first time) that these off-bike moments really do make up an equal share of the memories and value of a Ramble Bikepacking trip, I was also reminded that the real joy of guiding is in being a part of this ball of fascinating people, set in motion, over which none of us have total control.