Grand Canyon Adventure

It was a beautiful day on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon today. Two friends and I ventured down Grandview Trail to Horseshoe Mesa, where we explored the cave of the domes.
This place is amazing. There are big rooms with beautiful rock of many types, but more interesting there is an amazing reverboration of vocal sounds within some of the rooms.
We kept our visit short as we had hiked in mid morning, and we needed to get out by dark.
The hike out was breath taking, literally, and we had some great views too.
At the top I rode my Dirt Uni on the edge of the canyon for a few minutes. I will post some pictures of this in the next few days.
My trip to Flagstaff winds to a close this weekend with the Garro-Palooza fundraiser, and social benefit for the Garro family. I hope this event is enjoyable for all, but mostly I hope it can be enjoyable for those who need the assistance. I try to put myself in the Garro's shoes, and although I imagine they understand the honor that this event symbolizes, I also imagine it could be quite difficult to want to attend.
I look forward to seeing an inspirational friend tomorrow for breakfast, and spending some time with many who I love here over the weekend.

Another Daze of Movement Art

Flagstaff is always an enjoyable surprise when one is engaged in the community. My phone awoke me this morning. Annie was calling to tell me that there was a cross race at Northern Arizona University. Would I like to come along? Well, I am on a vacation, and I haven't been riding nearly enough during this trip, so what the heck. It was 15 degrees when I left the house to go to the race. I missed my race start. My friend had thought that it started at 10:30, but it really started at 10:00. I just laughed when I heard the announcer "B men line up, your race starts in 2 minutes".
I had a flat to fix, and a number to pin on my "jersey" a Coconino Cycles orange t shirt. So, they bumped me to the A category at 11:00.
I fixed the flat, and by the time we started it had warmed up to around 30 degrees.

I was sizing up the competition on the start line thinking " I knew him before he went pro, and I read about him in Velo News" when the word Go was uttered. As one always does in a cross race I tried my best to hang with the leaders for a time. I knew that I would probably get dropped like a unicycle in an airport security area (that's quickly, but with a little reservation because the item should not be there in the first place) but I figured that it was better to go out in a burning flame of glory then to just get dropped on the line. We shot across a field, barreled down a cindery trail next to a road, and climbed up the hill next to the sports dome. My heartrate shot up, my throat burned from the cold air, and the metallic taste in my mouth told me that I couldn't hold this pace for the next 45 minutes. I held off two guys behind me for a while, but then one of them watched me burn out in a cinder covered asphalt corner and promptly laid waste to me. I was happy enough not to be last, but it took the body a few minutes to warm up to the idea of racing cross again. Nothing like it. Full on, go time. 45 minutes, Pure Sweet Hell they named the movie.
I held on to second to last, but I missed a corner in my oxygen depleted delirium, so when I finished the race they said " Good job, you got 4th (of 5) but since you missed that corner over there we bumped that guy behind you up, and you back OK). Ok I said, but is really sucked actually. Like someone saying "nice job on that paper you wrote, we were going to give you a D, but you forgot to site a source so how about an F?".

Well, I was spent. I thought about going to the bar, and drinking away with some other losers of different races. My mom and her husband must have visioned my path downtown and invited me to go out to The Shangrila Chinese Acrobats. Wow, what a show! I call it balance and grace in motion.
Every act I couldn't possibly perform was right in front of my eyes. Men doing amazing floor gymnastics, a women balancing dozens of glasses on her nose while gracefully rolling around on the stage. Unicyclists riding giraffe uni's (yeah I can do this!) and balancing bowl after bowl on one foot, before launching them skyward to land perfectly on their head (oh I can't do that!). One woman balanced herself perfectly upside down on her head, on another woman's head who was standing up! It was great I say, great.

I left The Orpheum theater feeling that my dissapointing finish in my race was good enough. I guess humility is good for the human spirit, as long as we remember to take it that way. What those performers said to me through their performance is "you can try all you want, but so many will always be better than you. So just sit back and enjoy the show" and I remembered that that is in fact usually the best thing for me to do. Sit back, and admire others. Pick up what I can from their talent, and try to become something just different enough. Remember what it is that we love to see others do, and put our own spin on it.

I have seven more days here in Flagstaff, before I go home for the winter. Today was a good reminder to make the most out of that time.

Hope for Humanity

I am blessed to be within a community of many individuals and families who all shine in their own way. A beautiful community has been ever present in my life since my conception, but sometimes I simply live without taking the time to truly take in the caring and love my friends provide one another. This trip I am on to the Southwest was inspired not because of the want for warm weather, nor the lack of sunshine in Oregon, but because a brother of mine had fallen in a terribly crippling manner. His life had been saved by the graciousness of God, and the kindness of those in his community.
As a brother of mine I felt a terrible helplessness being so far away. I wanted to come to be with my friend in his time of need, so I left my community in the Northwest and came home to my community in Flagstaff.

There is no better example of beauty in our human race than the healing process. Healing is the bringing together of a whole, the reuniting of broken pieces. This can be as physical as bolting a broken femur back together. Although sometimes the most beautiful kind of healing happens when pieces are connected that have been so separated that they have forgotten about each other. I came here to Flagstaff because I wanted to help my friend put his pieces back together. I wanted to bring him food, and water, flowers, and fresh air. I wanted to pick up his tools in his shop and build beautiful art with him. I wanted to somehow find a way to put the broken pieces of his body back where they belonged.

Alas, I am only a man. I brought with me no magical tools to reunite bones who have lost hold of their other half. I have no technique to heal pain that doctors do not possess. I have not power tools that will magically transform my friend's shop into a functional shop with orders being filled daily.
No I am a man, and man possesses only that which is within himself.. When I left Oregon, I wondered what I held within. I felt that my soul was filled with love for my injured brother, and my body possessed energy enough to complete many tasks. I knew that I was scared, because I did not know what I would do. My mind said that it was very bright and it was ready to solve problems.

But I am a man, and men do not often think of their emotions. Either as tool that they may use to repair a broken piece, nor a hindrance to be considered. But as I was leaving Oregon my emotions could no longer be ignored nor forgotten. In fact they overwhelmed me. I was leaving a community I love, and a sister of mine who knows me very well. I was embarking upon a journey that required courage, but also the ability to surrender my preconceptions. It is a journey that beckoned, but too much personal baggage was not allowed. So I began to open my feelings, and let out the sadness that I felt to be leaving those I love if only for a while.

The healing process that my brother and friend is engaged in is both excruciating, and intense, hopeful, and saddening. I knew that my friend was in need of healing, and I was coming to help. But as any good care provider knows; you must be in good health yourself before you can help another.

I think that teaching someone how to unicycle is somewhat akin to providing care for an injured person. First you must know the basic principles of the movement art yourself. Next you must understand that balance is not actually difficult when it is achieved. Third you must remain positive in the face of mounting uncertainty, and believe that the incomprehendable is possible.

I believed that I was ready to help my friend learn to heal. I stepped into the Southwest, into the community here I love, and into the family I love. There he lay. Stretched out like the eternal cat. Relaxed (partially paralyzed), yet anxious at not knowing what the next moment would bring. He looked at me with so much hope, and positivity, and thanked me for coming to be with him. It was then that I began to remember something the little ones I have taught to unicycle have taught me: Often the teacher learns, and the student teaches.

During the days that have passed since my arrival my friend has never let his attitude diminish, to lose hope, or become upset that such a condition has been imposed upon him. He has instead been a great inspiration to me. This brother of mine says "I'm just glad to be alive.", and "I just want my back to stop hurting so I can get back to cooking and working in my shop". He is his bright self, and I am so thankful to be alive with him.
I think to myself how fortunate I am to be alive, and I realize that it is not I who is teaching him how to heal, but he who is teaching me to have hope in humanity. In these actions of strength, and positivity, I break down sometimes. I surrender to the beauty all around, and I remember that balance is essential to staying up in this world. I look at my crippled brother, and I am so thankful that he is willing to teach me to see the beauty in my world.

I realize that I did bring tools for this journey that doctors do not have at their command. I can make a friend laugh, or think of a beautiful memory we shared together. I can bring him new hope with each cup of water at his side, and every tool we put back in place in his shop. I may not posses tools to bolt bone back to bone, but I can share in his hope. Hope of wholeness and a future of possibility.

As this journey carries on, I remember that to heal is to be whole. And to be whole is to feel and see the entire being.
With this in mind I ride the wave of life with a new vigor, and a tenderness that I am only learning to develop.

Shred the Rad

Dirt Uni goes South. I am in Flagstaff, AZ shreddin' uni's, and enjoying a nice respite from the rain that has been hitting Central Oregon hard for the last few weeks. It is great to be here again visiting many people who enjoy mountain unicycling, and the outdoors.
The trip to Flagstaff will conclude sometime in early December, at which time I will pack my bags and head back to headquarters. We've got a few new designs in mind, and a whole Oregon winter to work on them, so keep posted come spring.

We at Dirt Uni invite you to join in a blog all about unicycling, and we hope to find out about our neighbors from all around the world as we blog forth.

Cheers to blog #1.

Eugene