Letter to Estes Park Trail-Gazette

Opinion by Mark Kern

Mark’s article below was submitted and first published in the Estes Park Trail-Gazette in June, 1999:

I asked a girl working at the Nochtop Cafe to send in a letter to your paper saying what she told me. She said she would, but after time, it now looks like she is not about to. I said: "I bet they’d print it," but, of course, I could not be sure.

She said she would bicycle around town if she could legally bike on the sidewalks downtown. But, that since she cannot bike on the sidewalks she rarely bicycles, or she does not use a bicycle for transportation. I suggested she mention on the bottom line that "there is a fundamental right to travel in this country."

When I first came through Estes Park (after many years) in ‘96, I saw a bicyclist zipping through a red light on his way to wherever . . . . These days I rarely see a bicyclist moving about in Estes. I am convinced bicycle tickets--for almost any reason--discourage (and stop) people from bicycling.

I showed her a letter of mine the Daily Camera printed last March 22nd on bicycling (copy enclosed). I told her I am a bicycle advocate, having literally fled bicycle enforcement in California.

I came to Colorado after reading the widely publicized demographic study saying Colorado has the lowest per capita obesity in the United States. I learned obese people, as a group, have the least respect for bicyclists. I’m also a believer that we are all each other’s role models. When I was 22 and getting discharged from the Air Force (1968) my blood pressure was 200/100. The VA pays me nothing for this reading, although knowing it helps me know that if I don’t keep fit, and active, I’m a goner.

Well-educated people have said I should have died years ago. I’ve said bicycling all these years, hiking, and eating a reasonably decent diet have kept me alive.

About a year ago, a doctor at the VA in Denver said I have a "textbook click" in my heart. The click could be heard clearly, because my heart rate was in the 50s, thanks to strident bicycling. These days I’m concerned since my heart rate has been elevated, despite extensive bicycling.

I call bicycling my religion. Doing it gives me life, among other things. Isn’t that what a religion is?

A couple of weeks ago, while bicycling up St. Vrain Canyon, doing about 7 mph, a cop car passed. I didn’t hear its approach. Over the constant roar of the creek, I can hear cars doing the speed limit coming up from behind. I tighten-up as far to the right as possible. I can not hear a car doing 7 mph, so this event upset me.

I spoke of it at the Boulder Unitarian Church saying bicycle laws have put the police into my cathedral, as if they were posted here watching you pray, stand, and sing properly.

Sincerely, Mark S. Kern

Return to BBC January 2000 Newsletter