TALES: The guy who almost walked his dog to death
So we're sitting at the peak of Spider Loop overlooking what seems to be the entire island of Okinawa. The only thing left to do is hang on for dear life down "La Luge," avoid the 15-foot plunge into an underground cave near the end, and take a leisurely ride back up the highway to our cars. Three Okinawan MTBers roll up to us with “Konichiwas” ("hellos") all around and their dog in tow, when Chris starts up a pleasant conversation in Japanese. What, he speaks Japanese, too?
Chris isn’t supposed to be a mountain biker – he said so himself. He’s a teacher at Okinawa University (explaining the Japanese), and snowboarder and photographer who just wanted to ride with us after our photo shoot Saturday was rained out.
At just a little after 7 a.m. Sunday morning, he rode up on what he terms his “Gull’s bike” (“Girl’s bike” to those of us not from the UK), and only then tells Garry and I that he had to ride from home because he didn’t have a rack on his Miata. I was too busy admiring the rust build-up on the chain of his Australian Apollo “Himalaya” that was at least a decade old to ask how far he had to ride, but I’d give it at least 10 kilometers. Most of it was probably uphill, too! This alone should have clued me in to how much heart the guy has. As for the 35-pound, yellow Himalaya, the rack over the rear tire was fused to the bike by four disintegrated allen bolts, and the combination to the cable lock secured to the rack had been lost long ago. We drenched the chain in Synlube and hit the mud.
Two hours later, he’s sitting here speaking Japanese atop his muddy Apollo, and we’re all admiring the spot where a big chunk of his helmet used to be, before it was snatched by a low-hanging branch a few kilometers back. The Japanese rider's dog reminds him of his own, and a time he walked his dog from home to this very spot, continuing down La Luge on foot and onward to the beach on the other side of the island. He said his dog walked gingerly on the way home from the four-hour trek. The next day, he had to carry the dog outside just to pee. Everyone looked at him like he'd beaten the dog with a stick when the vet explained the dog-year mathematic formula that boiled down to a 70-year-old canine that wished it had the lives of a middle-aged cat.
A few minutes later, we were barrelling down La Luge with grins plastered to our faces -- sharing the love we bikers dream of.
Garry offered Chris a ride home, and I thought Chris was going to kiss him -- luckily, that didn't happen. But I didn't want him to suffer the same fate as his pup, so was glad to hear Chris say "yes."
Just goes to remind us all of two important things: (1) the beauty of this sport is that anyone with heart can ride, and (2) that it IS possible to almost walk a dog to death.
You can see more about Chris, his dog and his work on his website at: www.travel67.com.
So we're sitting at the peak of Spider Loop overlooking what seems to be the entire island of Okinawa. The only thing left to do is hang on for dear life down "La Luge," avoid the 15-foot plunge into an underground cave near the end, and take a leisurely ride back up the highway to our cars. Three Okinawan MTBers roll up to us with “Konichiwas” ("hellos") all around and their dog in tow, when Chris starts up a pleasant conversation in Japanese. What, he speaks Japanese, too?
Chris isn’t supposed to be a mountain biker – he said so himself. He’s a teacher at Okinawa University (explaining the Japanese), and snowboarder and photographer who just wanted to ride with us after our photo shoot Saturday was rained out.
At just a little after 7 a.m. Sunday morning, he rode up on what he terms his “Gull’s bike” (“Girl’s bike” to those of us not from the UK), and only then tells Garry and I that he had to ride from home because he didn’t have a rack on his Miata. I was too busy admiring the rust build-up on the chain of his Australian Apollo “Himalaya” that was at least a decade old to ask how far he had to ride, but I’d give it at least 10 kilometers. Most of it was probably uphill, too! This alone should have clued me in to how much heart the guy has. As for the 35-pound, yellow Himalaya, the rack over the rear tire was fused to the bike by four disintegrated allen bolts, and the combination to the cable lock secured to the rack had been lost long ago. We drenched the chain in Synlube and hit the mud.
Two hours later, he’s sitting here speaking Japanese atop his muddy Apollo, and we’re all admiring the spot where a big chunk of his helmet used to be, before it was snatched by a low-hanging branch a few kilometers back. The Japanese rider's dog reminds him of his own, and a time he walked his dog from home to this very spot, continuing down La Luge on foot and onward to the beach on the other side of the island. He said his dog walked gingerly on the way home from the four-hour trek. The next day, he had to carry the dog outside just to pee. Everyone looked at him like he'd beaten the dog with a stick when the vet explained the dog-year mathematic formula that boiled down to a 70-year-old canine that wished it had the lives of a middle-aged cat.
A few minutes later, we were barrelling down La Luge with grins plastered to our faces -- sharing the love we bikers dream of.
Garry offered Chris a ride home, and I thought Chris was going to kiss him -- luckily, that didn't happen. But I didn't want him to suffer the same fate as his pup, so was glad to hear Chris say "yes."
Just goes to remind us all of two important things: (1) the beauty of this sport is that anyone with heart can ride, and (2) that it IS possible to almost walk a dog to death.
You can see more about Chris, his dog and his work on his website at: www.travel67.com.
posted by Spider Rider at 5:54 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, I know chris!
V/r,
John
hdr japan
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