This is part 17 in a series of blog posts that I am dedication to my favorite photos of 2009. Today’s inductee and now a resident in my “Cycling” photo album is “Push“. I took this photo July 30th, 2009 at 7:39 PM with my Canon SD1000 point and shooter.

Connecting with friends, both the story behind this photo and last night have one thing in common, connecting with friends. Isn’t that the essence of living life to its full happiness? That great feeling when you first spot a friend that you haven’t seen in a while.

Last night I gathered with friends and made new ones. We gathered because of a movie playing at the Roxy called Race Across the Sky. The movie was Olympic coverage style and so that was not what made the night great. It was connecting with fiends. So this weekend make a effort to connect with friends and go mountain biking.

When I got back from the worlds last year I gathered with my friends from Plattsburgh New York. The little one “Willow” was about to take her first MTB journey. She rode in this cool seat that fits between the rider and the handle bars. It was pretty cool.

This shot was taken in the Rattlesnake when “Niko” and I left the group for a little outing on some side single track. We took on some gnarly stuff and I took this awesome photo that because my camera was broken blurred the image. So I went with it and burred it some more and made it high contrast black and white. The result I think kind of stand for the image or icon in my inner soul of the sport I love, mountain biking. Mountain biking, the reason friends gathered last night.