His first ride with the BCC – The Seven Hills Of Park City

The much awaited 7-Hills of Park City ride is history for 2009.  There were about 18 people who showed up today.  Unfortunately, there was one drop-out: ME.  I guess I’d been sniffing too much paint thinner lately, and after only the 2nd ‘real’ hill (there was an additional hill I wouldn’t let them count :-) I couldn’t breathe! What they call a laryngeal spasm.  I ended up bailing out of the ride, but the gang prodded each other to finish the remaining hills, and the ride was a total success.  It was a lovely day, and I wish I could have been there for the full ride.  But here it is late at night, and I’m still a wheezing mess….that old saying “Because when you can’t breathe, nothing else matters” really made sense to me today!

At any rate, we had a new fellow with us today, his first ride with the BCC.  He has asked me to post the following message about his experiences today:

Riding "The Seven Hills of Park City" was by far the toughest and, oddly enough, the most enjoyable cycling experience I've ever had.  My sincere thanks to everyone that was there today (Cheryl, Marcy, Ron, Suzanne, Gary, Andrew, Lila, Jen,...well, I tried to remember everyone's  name) for making my first ride with the BCC such a great experience.  I look forward to meeting more of you and going on many more rides (including the seven hills...)

Sincerely,
Mark and/or Valita Pendleton

LRRH Packet Stuffing Party

Getting ready for Little Red – What a production line!

 

Salt Lake City Bicycle Summit

Well, Salt Lake's first bike summit is behind us and I for one feel it was a great success. There were four different panel discussions; Economic Development, Infastructure, education and Enforcement. sadly, the brevity of the day did not allow me attend all the workshops so I had to choose what I should focus on and that was education and enforcement.
Education - The panel was represented by UDOT, sharing their commitment to the federal safe routes to school program, having spent 3.2 million dollars so far towards helping kids and their parents feel safe and get excited about riding and walking to school. The SLC bike collective explained their role in training and educating a whole new group of proactive cyclists becoming LCI's and using their training to help the cycling community by leading by example and teaching others to do the same. And the Utah Bicyle Coalition spoke or their commitment to bring awareness and education to both cyclists and motorists through the introduction of the Sare the Road license plate and the need to bring education and safety into the schools.
Enforcement - This panel discussion was very interactive and shared many strong views and opinions of how laws and ordinances reflect on both cyclists and motorists and the need for them to be fair and just towards both. There was also a strong overlap of the need to educate everyone on how cyclists and motorists use and share the roads and why both education and enforcement work hand in hand to bring about awareness and change towards building a bike friendly place to live.
The keynote speaker, Gary Sjoquist, opened the summit with some enlightening facts of both good and bad hurdles that lie both behind and ahead of society as we work towards a better and stronger community that includes all modes of transportation sharing roadways and byways and how it will take all of us to commit to working hard to educate and promote the willingness and need to bring about a change in our communities to include bicycles as a viable mode of transportation and lifefstyle that will enhance our communities and lives rather than impede it.
Let us all take the lead and show by example how cycling and cyclists can and will bring about a positive change to our communities, making them stronger, friendlier and safer for all of us.
Pedal Fast and Laugh Often
Rob Y.