Over the past week or so more and more of the northeast's typical winter weather has been surfacing; it's about time. Wednesday's ride home from work brought me back to snowstorms in the back country: hiking out and strapping in, chest deep snow, silence and serenity--heaven, expcept that I was on a road bike with skinny, balding tires. If I recall correctly I did not stop smiling once on my blurry midweek ride home. of course not, for the white stuff was dumping.
Friday's forecast stated 100% chance of more snow, upwards of an inch an hour. An evening phone call from my brother held the flint for a Friday venture up to Hunter for the a day on snow. I struck his statement against my insides and instantly a light began to glow. I decided to call work in the morning and inform them of my mature decision. Bags were packed and my truck and I headed northbound for a sleep-shower-eat-stop in Oakland, followed by a morning ride over the Bear Mountain Bridge to my brother's place.
Although we got a late start, due to my personal incapacity in navigational skills, it was for the better. Snow just began to fall as we came within 20 minutes of Hunter. Much to our delight, the snow simply did not cease as we made our first blessed turns of the year. With Sigur Ros as my soundtrack we bounced, spun, carved and yipped our way through a constant renewal of white. The feeling of sliding sideways on snow is always an experience beyond comparison. One is often brought to a point of lost words, that even if they were to be recovered, would not do any justice. The feeling is an electricity, a certain confluence of energies.
With ten minutes until close my brother decided to head back to the car while I went up for a solo run. No audible words were exchanged between myself and the white squall that encompassed my moving body and the mountain it moved on; there was no need. The conversation was an internal, constant presence, an instinctual call-and-response. We had missed one another, and like two individuals who need not words in order to remain understood and respected in one another's eyes, the snow and I embraced a silent reminiscence, at peace to be together once again.
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