
And what Alden dishes out, Alden can take. He even has his own trail, "Alden's Bear Right," which is really just the rugged profile of a long-ago logging road cut with the faintest hint of singletrack. He'll tear through the weeds and alders and it's downright terrifying to even try to keep up with him - so much so that only a few in the Thursday Night Ride group were close enough to witness Alden smack a well-hidden, cantaloupe-sized rock and cartwheel several yards, breaking the high-speed fall with his face. Blood gushed from the bridge of his nose and upper lip and he stood up and calmly announced that one of the lenses in his glasses popped out. A half dozen people scattered to search, but he ended up finding it on his own, pulled his toppled bike out of the embankment, accepted the application of a band-aid, provided satisfying answers to every head-injury question, and walked down the rest of the trail with a big smile on his face.
Oh, he's going to be in trouble tonight," Julie whispered, referring not to Alden's rather painful-looking injuries, but to his wife.
Alden's my hero.
Jill, next time you see Alden....please tell him he is my new role model.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to read this when I feel like I can't do something.
ReplyDeletePeople like Alden put me to shame.
ReplyDeleteWhat an inspiration. Lucky you to have met him.
And he is sporting some pretty great bike face there. I want to be Alden when I grow up.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have ridden with him while in your neck of the woods!
ReplyDeleteJill: Thank you for the kind words. My wife was very understanding when she picked me up, and I am feeling fine today---a somewhat sore neck but no headaches or signs of a concussion. Correction: Bill found my eye glass lens.
ReplyDeleteAlden
i like this post!
ReplyDeleteThis summer I joked I had two goals, to get past Julie on the TNR and to get in one of Jill's photos on her blog. I actually had a larger goal of keeping up with Aldin. I achieved the first two but never quite managed the third to keep with Aldin. The one time I came up on him I thought it was some younger guy with some really ripped legs until I got closer and saw the beard! He ain't so bad in the backcountry on skis either. Yep, I'm with the rest of you...hoping to be ripping it up like Aldin some day. Thanks for the excellent post Jill.
ReplyDeleteAlden you are the greatest...o/o
ReplyDeleteAldin sounds like quite a guy. Surely an inspiration to us who inhabit older bodies. Also, I'm glad to see he walked away still wearing all his teeth. lol
ReplyDeleteYour writing is more interesting when you write about others. Great story, and well told. The photo tells quite a story, too!
ReplyDeleteAlden is definitely a stud who deserves hero/role model status.
ReplyDeleteAlden has long been considered a total badass and a legend in his own time by locals. It's nice to see him get some credit from admirers now and again. Thanks Jill. I'm proud to call him a friend and am glad to hear that he's ok.
ReplyDeletesounds like he could be glenn frick's younger brother.
ReplyDeleteAwesome.
ReplyDeleteSeeing people like Alden still cranking makes me realize I have many, many, more years of hard riding ahead of me.
i think he is my hero now too.
ReplyDeletehope to be that badass when i am 68...