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Since returning from Denmark I’ve checked in daily with Copenhagen Cycle Chic. This entry is my tribute of sorts to that wonderful blog. I miss my daily bike rides around Copenhagen. I try to get on the saddle a few times a week now that I’m back home in Ashland, but it just isn’t the same. (Not to mention the huge hill I have to climb to get back to my house…)
After obtaining bicycles we were suddenly freed to explore pretty much any part of Copenhagen rather easily and quickly. Bikes have a way of getting flat tires, though, and last week I got one. The plan was for me to go to the bike shop and get it fixed while my wife and kids went to visit a place on the map called Kongens Have. I would meet up with them after my tire was repaired.
After wandering around the edges of Kongens Have for a while taking pictures I realized that the fancy building near the center was actually Rosenborg Castle. I first read about Rosenborg in Music & Silence. Stumbling upon it here, basically unplanned, was a pleasant surprise.
The park around the castle is just as impressive, if not more so, than the castle itself. It includes lots of very different (to American eyes anyway) tree-lined paths, flower gardens, statues, and other curiosities.
We didn’t go into the castle as the highlight is supposed to be the crown jewels (which you can view in photographs on the internet) and at US$15 per person with an extra $5 fee if you want to take pictures it didn’t seem worth it.
My favorite part was finding picture angles that were unusual (like from the bottom where Rapunzel’s hair would hit you, or with the moat in view with The Ugly Duckling floating on the water, or with some of the amazing trees framing the castle). I hope you enjoy them.
Back in Copenhagen our first order of business was to secure some bikes. Everyone, it seems, rides a bike here. We wanted to fit in and, more importantly, be able to explore a wider range of the city. The problem is that to rent 4 bikes for a month in this town will set a person back over 3,000 DKK, which, with the weak U.S. dollar, translates into over $600, about how much we can buy 4 bikes for back in the states.
A friend told us we may be able to purchase used bikes from a store they knew about and then sell them back after a month so that the net cost was less than 3,000 Danish Kroners. We went to the bike store to investigate. The owner told us that rather than sell us bikes that we sell back to him after a month he recommended we just rent used bikes from him. That way if we had any problems (flat tires, etc.) he would fix them for free. At 1,200 DKK for four bikes for a month with free repairs we took him up on his offer.
But the main reason I’m telling you this story isn’t about how to get rental bikes in Copenhagen. (If you are interested, though, his shop is just north-west of the Forum on Orsteds Vej.) Why I’m really relaying this is so that I can tell you the story the bike shop owner told me.
The owner is a really nice man from Iraq. He has been a Danish citizen living in Copenhagen for over 8 years running a humble bike shop.
He wanted to have a big vacation in America, visiting some relatives, so he saved up his money and purchased a plane ticket last year flying through New York with a final destination of Detroit which is near where his relatives live. He converted his savings of Danish Kroners into U.S. Dollars before leaving. Upon arrival in New York he honestly claimed at customs that he was carrying $7,000 as spending money for his vacation in the states. This was apparently too much money for someone born in Iraq to have on their possession and not be a terrorist in the “land of the free.”
Homeland Security immediately put him in handcuffs and ankle cuffs (since bike shop owners from Denmark who just walk off of airplanes after having gone through airport security are well known to have WMDs fly off of their person when not completely shackled). My bike shop owner friend was then searched and placed in a detention cell for two days. He told me he was cuffed at the wrists and ankles for more than 12 of those hours. After two days he was told that he cannot go to Detroit. They placed him on the first flight back to Copenhagen and so ended his American ”vacation.”
And we sit around wondering why some of the rest of the world don’t like the good old USA?
He told me that he lived under the regime of Saddam for 30 years, and even though he didn’t like Saddam Hussein, he was never treated poorly during those 30 years by the Iraqi government. No, it took a trip to the United States of America, under the regime of George W. Bush, for all of his human rights to be taken away.
He told me he will never go across the Atlantic Ocean again and will never believe someone that tells him America is a land of freedom.
I told this story to a conservative American couple in Copenhagen a few nights back. I thought it would shock them. Instead of outrage, their response was, “At least they (the U.S. Government) are doing something.” My jaw dropped.
I felt like saying, “How would you like it if on your trip to Europe the British police had cuffed you and thrown you in jail for two days upon your arrival at Heathrow and then sent you on a plane back home?” But I bit my tongue as they changed the subject. The golden rule appears to be a one-way street for them.
I just got back from my third ride in under a week in the Siskiyous. It’s been 5+ years since I’ve ridden up there three times in a single week. I didn’t have my camera on any of the occasions though. However, I need to test out my laptop (and the photo editing software on it) before our trip to make sure that I can post decent pictures on this blog while we are on the road. So, to that end, I’m going to share some old photos from the laptop of mountain biking in Utah with you.
Two summers ago I was at a family reunion at Aspen Grove Family Camp near Sundance Resort. I brought my mountain bike with me. One day I road down to Sundance and then road up, around, and down some of the single track trails on the mountain. I don’t remember all of the names but some were Archie’s Loop, Scott’s Pond Loop, and Black Forest Loop. There were some crazy downhill parts called something like Rock & Roll and Bonecrusher.
I had so much fun the first day that I went back again on Sunday. It may just have been because it was a Sunday in Utah or something, but I rarely saw anyone else. On the second day I purchased a lift pass which allowed for more downhill riding since you could take the ski lift up. (I know, pretty wimpy, but once you’ve climbed a mountain once the thrill and glory is gone and subsequent climbings are just a lot of hard work. I did climb it once without the lift!)
This was the lift as I waited for it to open.
Seldom do you get to see this shot. People usually don’t take pictures mountain biking, myself included, since you don’t want to be hauling the weight of a camera around or risk breaking a camera in a fall. Those pictures you do see are usually of people on bikes on a trail taken by a non-rider. This is a picture while riding with no hands that gives you a good feel for the actual view of the mountain bike rider. I thought it was pretty cool, but as the photographer I’m biased. 
A self portrait among the Aspen trees… Some of the scenery was spectacular. What made it even better was the complete lack of people.
Not having spoken with anyone beforehand I didn’t know what to expect once I got up the trail. I was pleasantly surprised to find a pond near the top.
If you look closely at the above picture (lower right portion of the photo) you can see that the single track isn’t always great on Sundance. Sometimes it is pretty rocky and in this case it is also pretty dangerous; if you were to take a spill here you may end up going over a cliff of sorts.
Every view was amazing, not the least of which was this backside of Mt. Timpanogos in the Wasatch Mountain Range.
As I write this, the last riders in today’s 12Mile SuperD are crossing the finish line near my house. Although not an easy race, it doesn’t match the Revenge of the Siskiyous races that used to take place here. Those races required some serious uphill climbs as well as the downhills. Today’s race only climbs 600 feet (while dropping more than 5,000).
On Friday, I rode my mountain bike along a good section of the route. I climbed about 1,500 feet before dropping the same 1,500 feet back to my house. On the way, I rode on Toothpick (out and back) and Caterpillar (downhill only).
The Siskiyou Mountains above Ashland offer up some of the finest single track in the country. Besides Toothpick and Caterpillar trails, you can choose from dozens of other trails like White Rabbit, Catwalk (from Four Corners), Bull Gap, BTI, etc. Most aren’t for the faint of heart and take some getting used to. Toothpick isn’t very difficult, although, as the name suggests, it is sometimes not very wide. One side of the trail falls off steeply down the mountain. I wouldn’t want to crash on Toothpick because if you left the trail it would be a long way down.
On Friday the trails seemed unusually crowded. Crowded is a relative term however. We saw about 10 other people in our two hours up there. We also saw about 10 dogs. I’m not a fan of dogs–especially when I’m on a bike. I’m sure the hikers with the dogs probably aren’t too happy to see bikers either.
I once road the entire Ashland Loop Road (28 miles including 3,000 feet up and 3,000 feet down) without seeing another human being. I did see a bear on that ride though.
Next winter, after a fresh snow, I’ll have to take a ride up there with my camera. I’ve done it before without a camera and it was amazing. For now, I’ll just have to leave you with a single photo.
This is taken from approximately the center of this map between the bottom of Bull Gap and the top of Mt. Ashland. I’m on the other side of the mountain as Bull Gap though. (You can’t see Mt. Shasta from Bull Gap although you do have good views of Wagner Butte at times.) Mt. Shasta is in the background.
