Thursday, November 29, 2007

Whose woods these are I think I know

Actually I am pretty sure I know whose woods these are. Today I went to an all day meeting at the Cloquet Forestry Center. The Center, located just south of Cloquet, is owned by the UofM. It is a research and instruction center for the University's Forestry program. This is what it looked like today. It was 2 degrees on the bank time and temperature display when the bus passed through Cloquet. Winter has arrived in Cloquet.

I have not taken the course of instruction from the University but I do know that those are red pine, also known as Norway pine.Here comes the bike part. The main speaker was a geologist whose subject for the day was carbon sequestration in the Mid-Continent Rift as a strategy for dealing with global warming. The part that I heard was the idle chit-chat introduction that our geology guy gave him that said he was a marathoner and a triathlete. OK, I know what triathlon is so I went up to him at the break and after waiting for all the geophysicists and such to complete their technical questions I asked him what he rides.

He was immediately even more animated than he had been while talking about the Mid-Continent Rift. He rides a Cervelo. I knew that Cervelo was one of the favorites of the triathlon crowd but after today's conversation I know quite a bit more than I previously knew.

He and I had a nice moment as we discussed the point which I believe I originally read on FatCyclist about how few people there are who understand and appreciate what a wonderful thing a really nice bike which fits properly is and what a wonderful tool such a bike is and what wonderful things you can accomplish with such a tool.

Bike post, and here's some poetry:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

2 comments:

Santini said...

We're getting a nice assortment of winter like photos with this November blogging. Yours is the first one to feature real snow. Very nice wooded spot to spend an all day meeting.

I've seen some Cervelos somewhere -- somebody's blog, maybe. They look like nice bikes. And some of my favorite Frost. Good post.

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