Happening

Yeah, it’s a happening time, for better or worse.

TopoFusion was down for almost a week! Ouucch. The server’s root drive crashed and they had it back running a few days later. But for whatever reason they didn’t get things set back up for topofusion.com for several more days, so we’ve now bailed to another host. Sorry for the extended downtime, we’re still alive!

Last week I spent 3 days in Marin County, CA, checking out MotionBased, a company up to some cool stuff with GPS data, mapping and analysis. Why was I checking them out? They offered me a job, even though I wasn’t looking for one. I should note that they were recently acquired by Garmin, so they are all now Garmin employees. The offer and job is very intriguing, but I have not come to a decision yet about it. There are too many factors to the decision to write down. In any case, TopoFusion will continue on and this web site will stay up — depending on the reliability of our new host, that is! (so far so good)

I did two rides in Marin, and they were actually pretty nice. It ain’t singletrack, but it is mountain biking and it’s better than riding the road. There’s plenty of climbing, which is good, but it looks like technical stuff is a long drive away. The host of “no bikes” signs is very frustrating. I was riding up paved Muir Woods road watching nice singletrack branch off in every direction, but could I ride any of it? Nope. The natural question is, why not? Because the sign says so. But why the sign? It’s not a protected area (e.g. wilderness). It wasn’t too hard or unsafe for cycling (e.g. Bright Angel or North Kaibab trail). There was NO ONE out there, so it wasn’t a hiker conflict issue. But, yes, it is a conflict issue. There are too many people living in too small of a place, so their solution to the problem of user conflict was a (near) unilateral ban on bikes. Even if it’s 1pm on a Wednesday and the only people around are commuting on highway 1 to their beach house at Stinson Beach. Fie, I say.

There are plenty of trails in Tucson where bikes are not allowed. But there are also plenty where they are allowed. And in the places where it is allowed you aren’t constantly reminded that there’s good riding around, it’s just not legal.

The riding is only one consideration, and, honestly, I’d love to explore all the riding in Marin (and Northern California) for a while. How long it can hold my interest is unknown. Probably long enough.

The more important consideration is whether I want to work a “traditional” job. I have no doubt that I can do it and quite probably would enjoy it. But is it what I want to do? Is it what fits me best? I don’t know. I don’t know what fits me best. 40+ hrs a week? But if there was ever a full time, “secure” job that I was going to take, this is a really good one, and a great opportunity. I also really like what I’m doing now, and am reluctant to give up the benefits I enjoy. People with full time jobs can’t ride the Continental Divide and the Arizona Trail, (twice in one year). It’s not just about the time-off, but the time training, planning and, well, dreaming.

TopoFusion has never controlled our lives. We did it and continue to work on it because we love it. We never intended to become a serious business or be bought out by Garmin. It’s small and manageable by design. We could have more customers, but then we’d have more tech support issues and less time to add features and, well, get outside.

In any case, I am really thankful for this opportunity to take a step back and really ask myself what I’m doing. Regardless of whether I take the job or not, I will have learned more about myself.

After the visit to the bay area, Paula and I flew north to Eugene to visit Alan, the other developer of TopoFusion. He’s got a nice setup in Eugene, even if the mecury hovered in the 30’s most of the time we were there. We did a few rides from town, sampling the newly constructed Amazon Headwaters trail. They did a nice job building this trail. Even though it’s the rainy season it was quite rideable. It’s right outside Al’s door, too. We also commuted quite a bit around town and Paula got some big runs in. I really like Eugene.

Lee and I have a cunning plan for a new ride/adventure… recon begins next week. The scope is not quite as large as some our previous rides, but I’m pretty excited about it. As with all good adventures, there are many unknowns waiting to become knowns…….

Today’s ride was a treat. There’s one tight turn that I know I’ve ridden once before, but haven’t been able to clean in recent memory. Today I rode the trail out and back. I can easily ride the turn downhill, but on the uphill return, I noticed where my tires were on the downhill run. It hit me — “that’s where your tires need to be on the uphill, dummy.” It was too late on that attempt, but on try two I tried to match the tire prints and met with success.

Then, on the way back through the University I sat at the red light of 3rd/Campbell. 4-5 cyclists were there already. On green, the “race” was on for one hot-shot commuter on a road bike. He put the hammer down, gaining an overly impressive 50 foot gap on the rest of us. 100 feet later he went over the bars. The cause was unknown, but I couldn’t restrain my laughter. How do you endo on a flat neighborhood road? Well, this guy managed it. He smiled and laughed back.