COFFEE OUTSIDE
Marc Kitteringham
“I think this is as good a spot to stop for coffee as any,” Christina said as we crested a surprisingly bald hill in Elk Island National Park. The early winter sky was an angry grey and we could hear the wind as it made its way through the trees to our hill. We parked our bikes against some burnt out logs and I pulled out the fixings for coffee. We made a wind block out of our backpacks and our bodies, assembled the camp stove and coffee maker and tried lighting the gas with numb fingers. Finally it caught and we waited as the coffee came to a boil.
The day started out later than I’d hoped due to an unforeseen case of hangover. Originally, we wanted an 8:30 start, but the doings of the night before left us incapacitated until a more civilized hour came. We are both not morning people, so even though 9:30 may seem like a perfectly normal time to start the day, it seemed obscenely early. There was still ice on the sidewalk as I pedaled to my car. I pulled into Christina’s parking lot at 9:28 and we got on our way. We didn’t speak much as we drove to her parents’ house to get her bike. It was still before coffee and we were not ready for much conversation.
Due to my own neglect, I hadn’t seen Christina in a few months. I had been feeling like a shitty friend after declining her invitations over the course of the summer and I’d been meaning to make it up to her. Fortunately we both have a love for coffee, being outside and riding bikes.
I figured the best way to rekindle a friendship was to combine these three things into one great outing. I shot her a quick text to see if she was down and she replied with one word: “rad.”
After loading her bike and some tricky navigation to get out of the city, we hit the open highway and began to feel better. Coming out of the city has always made me happier in some small way. Going to a wild place where the rules didn’t apply has a strong hold on me, and the further we got away from the brutalist architecture and prevailing grey feeling of Edmonton, the better I felt.
By the time we pulled into the parking lot at the trailhead I was raring to go. The cold air bit at my nose and each breath sent a refreshing cooling sensation to the back of my throat. Even before caffeinating, I was feeling more alive than I had in a while. Christina was feeling it too. “There’s not much better hangover cure than biking for an hour,” she told me.
The trail was covered in snow, making the first few ascents tricky in our mud tires. The slick semi-frozen mud was covered in slicker snow so we had to push our bikes up most of the climbs. After about 4 km we figured it was time for a coffee. We set up on top of a grassy hill and started brewing.
“Its crazy how many different ways there are to make coffee,” says Christina. “And all of them are used to make this one drink.” I replied. It is strange how one single drink can bring people together in such a way. Cyclists and coffee go together like cyclists and beer. That may be a bad example, but I think it shows just how much we enjoy these kinds of things. There is a reason that so many bike shops double as coffee shops. Something about riding on two wheels and a well-timed espresso shot go hand in hand. It could be the fact that cycling drains energy and we need any kind of jolt we can get, but I think it’s more than that. I think the sense of community that comes from both cycling and drinking coffee makes the two activities go together like… well bikes and coffee.
Add in the chance to go to the woods, and… well how can you say no?
https://www.strava.com/activities/431008778