Intro

I had this crazy idea. It didn’t start out crazy; it started out like a normal, not-crazy idea. I was bored with riding the same old trails—thank you, Strava, for revealing that I’d ridden Mathis for the hundredth time—and so I thought I’d push myself to ride new ones. And I did that for a few weeks. But when I looked at Google Earth and Google Maps and Gaia GPS and the little purple squiggles I’d drawn by recording my rides, the idea mutated into a strange and ridiculous beast. What if I rode every significant trail and street in the southern half of my nine-hundred-forty-eight-square-mile county? And what if in my hometown, I rode every single road, alley, and dirt track? And in the towns closest to me, too? Would I have the fortitude to see it through? And if I did, what would I learn about the place where I live, the people who live here, and myself?