Earth Day

Say what you will about President Bush, but you have to respect the man for his mountain biking abilities.

The president spent Saturday morning with a small pack of riders in a foggy redwood forest about 90 minutes north of San Francisco. He relished the swampy conditions on parts of the trail in this remote state-owned tract, leading his partners repeatedly through huge puddles and streams running high after weeks of heavy rain.

The ride started at an elevation of about 1,700 feet above sea level and dropped steeply for several miles, prompting a bit of anxiety in the president. He is not accustomed to the sustained drops and climbs of California's mountains, having ridden mostly in the Washington, D.C., area and on his ranch near Crawford, Texas.

Riding Mountain Bike One — a blue and white Trek Fuel bicycle emblazoned with the presidential seal — he glided confidently over loose rocks and deep gullies carved by rain runoff. Bush recovered from a near spill on a fast downhill, but four riders behind him went down in a Tour de France-style pileup, leaving them caked with dirt.

I'm not one to donate to political warchests, but if President Bush ever held a mountain bike fundraiser where we got to ride some singletrack with him, I'd pay up for the privilege.

For those of you that spent your Earth Day filling up the gas tank and complaining about the current price of gas, the daughter of the founder of Earth Day doesn't think current prices are too high.

I agree with her actually. Every time the price of gas rises, it infuriates me to hear talk about windfall oil profit taxes and other forms of political pandering, as well as ad nauseum news interviews "live from the pumps" about people's outrage over the price of gas. I know there'd be lots of consequences (both intended and unintended, positive and negative) but it really wouldn't bother me if gas doubled in price from here.

It's interesting how one seemingly cannot be both conservative and pro-environment/conservation. Approach the typical pachouli dipped earth-day celebrator and tell them you are conservative and an environmentalist and watch their head explode.

I'll wager I care more about the environment than the typical earth dancer does. Eventhough--as a friend put it--I don't smell like it.