ALL TRAILS LEAD TO ICE CREAM

Backtracking is something that use to bother me...especially when mountain biking.  I'm not sure if it was a sense of failure..."Crap...we went the wrong way...we need to head back"...or if I just simply liked looking at my Garmin and Strava maps and seeing a big loop tracing my route.  Backtracking, however, can be helpful.  By teaching me where NOT to ride, that sense of "failure" that I mentioned earlier can also serve as a learning tool...or, in some cases, it can even introduce a whole new path that can be taken on future rides and hikes.  As of recently, backtracking has become increasingly part of my rides.  Riding the same trail in opposite directions changes everything about it...the view is different, the ups and downs are reversed, and the twists and turns flow differently...completely altering the usual dynamic of the trail. Taking a break during an incredibly peaceful solo ride at Rocky Ridge County Park . -- December 23, 2019 As 2019 sl...

My Aunt Debby once told me that my grandfather, George Morosky, loved to take pictures...and that he had a camera with him all of the time.  Grandpap passed away in 1984 when I was only 10 years old. I still have fond memories of him which include morning Hungry Jack pancakes, daily walks, and spitting watermelon seeds into the grass on hot summer evenings...but I don't remember the camera.  Yet, as I began combing through my family pics from the 70s and 80s looking for a good picture of Grandpap George and me I began to see it...Grandpap and his camera at Kennywood...Grandpap and his camera at Christmas Eve gathering...Grandpap with is camera hanging around his neck just about everywhere. Grandpap George Morosky at Kennywood Park.  My cousin, Josh, is standing next to him and my brother, Jake, is in the foreground on the right. -- Summer 1982 I love pictures, too.  I have no idea if that love was somehow passed on to me by my grandfather...but I think i...