As winter rolls in, shorter days get me dreaming about dryer times, longer rides and distant adventures. The damp, cold weather gives me time to scout around on the internet, check out trip reports and photos, get onto TopoMap Canada and USA and find back routes from A to B. When I find a new, intriguing destination, I put it onto my dream list. From this ever-extending list, I always have way more places to go, and rides to check out than I ever have in time off to do them all, but that's OK, some will just have to wait and sit on the back burner for another time. I'm not giving up on them yet.
I heard a really good quote the other day. It was by Andrew Krynen - a rider in the Baja 1000 out of the film 'Road to Baja' (found on Chainslayer.com). He said 'You know you can live your life every day - get in your car and drive to work, and… life is pretty boring. When you reach out and look for that adventure and go do it, it's a pretty good feeling. And I don't think a lot of people put that time and effort into chasing that adventure in their life like they should.' He goes on to mention 'Trips can mean a lot to some people as a 'goal perspective'. You have certain things in your life that you want to achieve, that you want to do and you want to experience. For me, those are the experiences that I remember in life.'
This really struck home to me. Over the years I have been playing in the back country here in BC, down into the States and beyond as much as I can. I have been fortunate to have had the time and family support (thanks to my wife) to allow me to go do some pretty amazing trips. I've seen some fabulous country and been able to ride in places many people just dream of. Gathering a few good buddies for these excursions always seems to be the easy part and scraping together the funds seems to happen. Working through the logistics and all the other details is half the fun of these trips anyway.
I'm not going to call it my 'bucket list' or anything as I don't feel I'm anywhere near close to feeling pressured to get these trips in, but I'll continue to tear shots out of magazines, or make a mental note to go Google some location. I'll also continue to throw out ideas to my fellow explorers on new trip ideas - so far they have been as keen as I am. We seem to have a pretty good ratio of making it happen once the seed has been planted.
So, as I sign off here for the last e-news of the season, I'll challenge you all. How many times have you said 'man, I've always wanted to do that'? How many times have you followed through and done it? With 2010 just around the corner I challenge you all to make at least one of those adventures or dreams come true.

Steak Sauce