Search & Rescue Mission

Black Hawk Creek near the Ansborough bridge

Friday was another cloudy, very windy, and rainy day. I had thought I might get outside for a bit in the afternoon for a brisk walk perhaps. But then I noted a post on the Nextdoor app and saw that a Board member of the Collective had lost their glasses in the Green Belt which is very near to where I live. 

So, that ended up becoming the excuse for me to round up my Dorado townie and go schlepping through the woods for a while looking for something I thought might end up being a bit of a wild goose chase. The person indicated where they thought the glasses might be, but, you know.... Weeds, dirt, underbrush, and whatever else might be out there could easily conceal something as small as eye glasses and the chances of them being right on the tread of the trail was probably really low.

I figured it probably would end up being just an adventure, and it was going to be okay. But then again, I believe that if you listen, there is a Spirit that can guide you. So, why not?

The Dorado has a rear rack now.

 This would be a great chance for me to see how the Dorado would do as a bike to plunk around on in the woods. I've found that the front end geometry is really interesting in that you can track stand the bike quite easily and it does slow speed turns really well. It has stability that is uncannily good, not the kind that causes you to feel the bike is sluggish or a tank. But yes, it is not light! It rides "light". 

Anyway, I tried to listen for that "still small voice" and let myself be guided by that and I ended up near the area that the person had indicated that they thought they had lost the glasses, but then you have to actually find them. And that was when I found myself staring straight at them. You can say what you want, but I'm pretty sure I know why I found the glasses. 

Well, after that was done I thought, "Let's see what this ol' bike can do!", so I pointed it down a short chute of single track that headed toward the dike. Once I got to the steeply pitched dike I tackled it by taking a bit of an angled line up, but I found that the low gear was good enough and I actually turned into the incline a bit more. 

So, the bike climbs alright, and I think it actually probably would be okay for lower speed plunking around woodsy thing. I'll think about maybe doing that for fun someday. One thing about the bike - Rollercam brakes, when set up right, feel about as powerful as disc brakes do. It's amazing. I can see why they ended up getting spec for a couple of years in the 80's.

Oh, yeah- the glasses.  I made a connection and got them returned to the happy owner. Search and rescue mission: Success!