Le Tour De Koocanusa

My friend Justin and I are riding 83 miles Saturday, around Lake Koocanusa. I've come a long way since our 1st ride several years ago on the Hiawatha, Rails to Trails route.  I was on my 2 wheel, upright bike then. Yes, I know what you are thinking, I fell. It was while coming to a stop on the gravel path, and I mangled my already scared, left knee. He didn't make a big deal out of it, and passers by had paper towels to help clean me up, so on we rode. I wrote a poem about it.

Tunnels

The ebony trail is seamless
And when you enter,
Light does not come with you,
Just then, traveling into the rock,
Light decides to stop
It stops without hesitation and
leaves no hint it was ever there,
As if it had never been your friend, at all
And you are alone

The darkness, this black;
Like your eyes are closed and
You're pushing the lids together,
With all the force that's there,
You look like the angry,
Pissed off kid wanting candy and
You don't recognize this black,
But must move through it
Ride straight, no stops

This is the Taft tunnel
Nearly 2 miles connecting light to light
Mid-tunnel, asleep in the black, a sign
Whispers you crossed a boarder.
But Montana black is the same
as Idaho black

Your only design
Is to connect, again, with light
It finally shows itself
Far away and very small
The slight pin prick of day time
Insignificant against the endless
Black sheets that swallow us
But as we travel, it grows
The tiny spark expands and moves to us
Our target is easy to maintain

We stay true, then rejoin light

At ease again, unknown knots

relax and untie themselves

Our friendship began in 7th grade.. They had built a new junior high for 8th, and 9th grades, but 7th grade stayed in the old junior high, Linderman. Every 7th grader in town attended. I came from the Catholic school, where I had been for 6 years, and was anxious to meet new people. I don't remember how we met, but through Junior High and High School we hung in the same crowds, and competed in sports together. Oh, and he dated my best friend, but that's another story.

If you know me, you know the rest, but I'll briefly recap:  I attended the U of O, got married, had 2 kids, sustained a  Traumatic Brain Injury, taught and coached in WA, and ID, divorced, and returned to Kalispell. And upon my return Justin helped me move into my place. Not long after I was settled, I asked him to take me for a hike in Glacier Park.  We did the Walk of the Cedars, which is not really a hike, but it was nice. Post TBI, I didn't imagine doing that kind of thing again, and there I was, thanks to my friend.

Just a Walk

I think of things I cannot do, and
Some friends assure me You Can!

It's kind of them, but it's like they're saying
You're not that bad. You should just try

But no help is offered

The help I need to just try

They don’t want my failures

To cloud their idea of me,

The sketch of the before me,

Carried safe and secure,

Inside their whole, complete brains

They know if they just tried

They could do it
But know, deep down, that I can’t

So I am not really like them,

Me with the damaged brain

The comments make them feel better

About themselves

And they think that they have

Helped me feel not so different

I asked a friend to take me hiking and

He did not say that I could hike, if I just tried

Instead, he said he'd take me, 

But, it really would be more like just a walk

We went, and it really was
just a walk, but we laughed, and
talked, and found the familiar place 
Our friendship knew

And then we rode our bikes on the new rails to trails route to Kila as far as it was completed. We rode 8 miles to the end, and then back. We rode the Hiawatha trail, next, and from then on we rode quite a bit; to Somers, where a cold beer waited for us. And to Kila, where we watched families of ants, and shared our snacks, before returning home.

In preparation for tomorrow's ride, we planned on riding from Del's Bar in Somers, riding through Kalispell to Kila and then back to Del's, but that ride never came about. Justin assures me that I'll make it, but told me, in no uncertain terms, never to stop for him. Believe me, he'll be doing a lot of waiting for me. But, that's the kind of friend he is, even though he'd never admit to it publicly.