This weekend....I MUni'ed

General
1

First of all, what am I trying to type? MUnied? MUni’d? MUni-ded?

Anyway, since I got my MUni, I’ve been off-road - every weekend since, in fact. And I thought I was MUni’ing (damnit!), but I know now, I was deluding myself. This weekend, I MUni’ed.

I decided to try out Fountainhead park, here in Northern Virginia, and I’m glad I did. It’s a 5 mile mountain bike trail and it aint kidding around. It’s all hills and plenty of deadfall. Except for a few (and at the time very welcome) exceptions, this trail is either going uphill or downhill, and it means business. I realized pretty quick I was in over my head, but I didn’t give up. I did a lot more walking than riding, and the uphill is pretty much impossible for me at this point.

But when I got some good downhill, it was amazing. I did several things I should not have been able to do. It’s awesome when you pass that impossible cluster of rocks and roots, all while going violently downhill, and you come through at the bottom untouched. This was some incredible stuff.

I certainly did not, however, always come through untouched - ouch.

Plus, I got to break in my new CamelBak - god I needed it.

So, here’s my list of how you know your really MUni’ing. These are the reasons why I know I was MUni’ing.

-If you come out of the woods, and parts are missing from your ride, you just MUni’d (this time, all of my pedal reflectors disappeared - next time, who knows)

-If you go out on a trail and walk WAY more than you ride, your MUni’ing.

-If you see a guy pushing a unicycle out of the woods, looking like he just got mauled by a bear, that guy just finished MUni’ing. (I’m pretty sure I made it into somebody’s vacation photo album)

-If you can tell yourself, with a good degree of confidence, that that is probably, most likely, the first time that deer has ever seen a unicycle - your MUni’ing.

2

Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

I liked those 4 sentences, they should all be some part of the “How to tell if you have been Municycling…” dictionary…
How about starting one?

Oded.

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Re: Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

My contribution:

You’re on all fours with the uni bouncing away down a muddy slope away from you, and the one thing going through your mind is “what the **** am I doing?!?!”

Phil, just me

4

If you have just heard someone say, “you’re CRAZY”, you have just fallen while MUni-ing.

If you have just heard someone say, “you’re AWESOME”, you are still upright while MUni-ing.

5

Nbrazzi,

Congrats! I’m glad you had fun. I won’t be able to Muni until I have my Muni looked at by a buddy, so I am jealous.

However, I did manage to obtain my first “cool” unicycle injury. I sometimes go out and unicycle in the rain, as long as the lightning isnt too heavy. I usually avoid hopping in the rain when I am on my street cycle because a high hop means the tire deforms. In wet conditions I could slip. This time, it happened and I have a cool series of trenches in my shin (not too deep, but they look cool).

So, congrats on your first “real” muni, hats off! I join you with my first scars!

Lewis

6

I’ll add one to the list…

– If you see a mountain biker suddenly stop mid-trail, and you hear a muttered “Whoa!” you know s/he’s seen a MUni-ist.

7

I think I went for a muni ride on Sunday. I went for a ride along the Skookum Flats trail <http://www.dirtworld.com/trails/trail.asp?id=247> The trail name just teases you because the trail is not at all flat. Technical, rooty, rocky, muddy trail through old growth. A lovely ride, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so muddy. The other trails in the area have dried out by now, but Skookum Flats is still a mud bog in places. One puddle that I thought would be only a few inches deep ended up swallowing my wheel almost up to the hub (my feet got wet on that one). It is a tough trail when the conditions are good, it is a b*tch when it’s muddy. I’ll wait a month or so before trying it again. Hopefuly it will dry out by then.

I didn’t leave any uni parts along the trail, but I did end up walking more of the trail than I wanted, I saw three moose (and the mooses saw me), and finished the ride looking like a zombie from Night of the Living Dead. My legs are still sore.

john_childs

8

I can see a Jeff Foxworthy type of thing developing…

“You know you’re a muniac if…”

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Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

In a message dated 6/10/02 3:25:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Animation.61qfm@timelimit.unicyclist.com writes:

> However, I did manage to obtain my first “cool” unicycle injury. I
> sometimes go out and unicycle in the rain, as long as the lightning isnt
> too heavy. I usually avoid hopping in the rain when I am on my street
> cycle because a high hop means the tire deforms. In wet conditions I
> could slip. This time, it happened and I have a cool series of trenches
> in my shin (not too deep, but they look cool).
>
> So, congrats on your first “real” muni, hats off! I join you with my
> first scars!

congrats on the scars. those are very importaint to any sport. i can tell
you i still have some nice shin scars from inlining when i was 14.
__
Trevor andersen

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RE: This weekend…I MUni’ed

> I can see a Jeff Foxworthy type of thing developing…
>
> “You know you’re a muniac if…”

Wait 'till you see the new On One Wheel. There’s a similar list in there…

JF

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Re: RE: This weekend…I MUni’ed

How would somebody go about getting “On One Wheel”?

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RE: This weekend…I MUni’ed

> How would somebody go about getting “On One Wheel”?

Good question! Join the Unicycling Society of America. Go here:
http://www.unicycling.org/usa/join/
Fill out the form (optionally read all about it), send in a check. If you
were coming to NAUCC, you’d have to do this anyway… :slight_smile:

Feel free to ask me any additional questions, but please read what’s on the
site first.

Stay on top,
John Foss
President, Unicycling Society of America
President, International Unicycling Federation
jfoss@unicycling.com

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Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

nbrazzi <nbrazzi.61hva@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

> -If you go out on a trail and walk WAY more than you ride, your
> MUni’ing.

I liked the other three discriminators. But this one I think is weak.
This way, my 73 y.o. mother could MUni (what a thought…).

Klaas Bil

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Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

nbrazzi <nbrazzi.61hva@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

> -If you go out on a trail and walk WAY more than you ride, your
> MUni’ing.

I liked the other three discriminators. But this one I think is weak.
This way, my 73 y.o. mother could MUni (what a thought…).

Klaas Bil

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Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

nbrazzi <nbrazzi.61hva@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

> -If you go out on a trail and walk WAY more than you ride, your
> MUni’ing.

I liked the other three discriminators. But this one I think is weak.
This way, my 73 y.o. mother could MUni (what a thought…).

Klaas Bil

16

Re: Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

Perhaps, perhaps. I guess it’s all in how you look at it. To say, you walk more, implies that your riding some.

But, maybe we could update it to say “If you’ve been unicycling for a year, and you go out on a trail and walk WAY more than you ride, your MUni’ing”

Hows about that?

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Re: This weekend…I MUni’ed

nbrazzi <nbrazzi.6584n@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote
> But, maybe we could update it to say “If you’ve been unicycling for a
> year, and you go out on a trail and walk WAY more than you ride, your
> MUni’ing”
>
> Hows about that?

Firstly, this “You know you’re MUni’ing if…” thing is not all that
serious, OK? Having said that, I still don’t like your modified
sentence. It basically only looks if the trail is too difficult for
you to ride. So it relates your ability to the trail difficulty,
without making an “absolute” statement. In addition, if you do
actually ride a difficult trail, you surely WOULD be MUni’ing. And
then, quite some folks are MUni’ing within a year.

I suggest we just drop this one.

Klaas Bil