The Devil's in the Details...

(Small slice of a cycling satyr, official mascot of the 3rd Annual Bootlegger's Bliss.)

Tried to run the proposed Bliss course on Sunday, but a hub issue on Donna’s bike meant I took my ride around the toolbox in the parking lot. Meanwhile, the rest of the group, lead by Julie, took off on a partial loop, with the idea they’d meet us again later at a trail junction before continuing the ride. I got the frozen wheel turning again and we rode to the meeting spot to wait for the group and rejoin the ride. Unfortunately, the group was running a little late, and the two of us, thinking that we had somehow missed them, headed down again to the parking lot. We then had the severe misfortune to encounter Sir David Blum, who was waiting out his wife’s ride with the group and keeping an eye on his twin sons. Dave had beer. We had beer. We swapped beers. The prospects of riding quickly gave way to the warming glow of alcohol as the morning chill fled the arms of the rising sun. Misfortune, indeed.

No matter. Riders with impeccable trail judging credentials gave me a full report and this, along with a map Julie was kind enough to offer me, means I’ll be checking out the proposed loop next weekend, along with some other riders, one of whom composed most of the route. It's all coming together nicely.

The Bliss is a runaway half-barrel, loaded down with a roiling elixir of equal parts homebrew, adrenaline, magic, and mayhem, careening down a rocky slope at breakneck speed, giving and asking no quarter of anything in its path as it rolls on to the hop-bitter end. As Pete Townsend put it, there’s no damn thing stops this poem. The Bliss is go!

That’s it for now, except for one important thing: try as the Bliss does to dispense with overt commercial transactions in favor of barter or simple exchange (indeed, this is the whole raison d'etre of the event), the Maryland National Park Service sees no value in aboriginal market practices. Thus, attendees should arrive with three dollars cash in hand to pay the park entry fee.*

*A mere three dollars for a full day of Bliss? I call that a bargain.