There is a mechanism within that drives us towards stupidity. Hopefully, youth gives the opportunity to squelch the worst outcomes of this truth. We grow up, we moderate, we behave in a reasonable manner. Drunken bacchanalia, high speed driving, opportunistic sexual behavior, saying the most painful thing, most of that stuff is out of our system by the time we get done with that first post college year.

But it’s only a tamping down of the idiotic impulse. It still exists and for some (looking in the mirror here), the desire for the truly stupid bubbles tantalizingly just below the surface of daily life. Yes, punching that person really seems compelling. Diving off the cliff? Yup, been there. Walking away from a career that pays well and is fairly entertaining? Yeah, that’s happening.

Why?

There’s an Olympian I’ve worked with for a couple of Winter Games cycles. She’s a cross country skier, has won several medals and even more world cups. Every summer, in the middle of all the training necessary for mid-winter success, Jessie Diggins, does something she calls “The Big Stupid.” It’s a day of running, cycling or skate skiing that goes on for so long and hurts so bad that doing it just doesn’t make sense from any practical standpoint. It puts her body in a vulnerable spot, can take days to recover from and usually happens on terrain that is best suited for avoidance.

But she does The Big Stupid every year. Because she wants to know what she’s got inside of her.

On April 12^th, I’m getting on my bike and riding from Del Rio, Texas to the Canadian border  with North Dakota. I’m bringing a sleeping bag, tent, a stove, one pair of pants and some food. I truly hope I make it. I’ve never been bikepacking before. It may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But am I gonna find out what I’ve got inside myself at 60? I think so.

For the past forty six years, I’ve either been in school or working. The most vacation I ever had was two weeks. I plan to be gone for forty days minimum. There’ll be limited use of air pods, I’m going by myself and I have no plan for where I’ll sleep each night. The goal? To spend as much time as I can in the present, while trying to figure out what to do with the next few years of life.

It could be really stupid or just maybe the adventure of a lifetime.

https://bikepackingroots.org/project/great-plains-gravel-route/