A Note to Myself

Don't ride in order to become something that you're not now. Ride as yourself, for yourself, today. Ride where and how your legs tell you, your heart tells you. Where the wind blows you.

Pack up your beautiful new handlebar bag or your snappy new pannier and hit the road. Seek adventure, seek fun. Chasing fitness, trying to compete or fit in, has always led you away from yourself, from joy, from health. You've ended up with pneumonia, knee injuries, glum and isolated on the couch. That's not where you belong.

Listen to your body, your heart, and the terrain, and follow them over the next hill.

American Youth Hostels tour of the West Coast, summer1981