riding dirty

How izzit we've never tried this?

That thought was running through my head as Magnum and I went on a recreational adventure.  We went mountain biking.  For the first time.

Blame Wolfgang, I suppose.

Naturally, living near all these Rocky Mountains, mountain biking is as ubiquitous as alpine skiing.  But honestly, it's never really appealed to me.  We've come across mountain bikers while out hiking, and it just looked like an awkward struggle.  Or I'd see videos, and it looked like crazy on wheels.

One day, not too long ago, Wolfgang brought home a top-of-line full suspension mountain bike he'd rented. 

"Go ahead, try this", he said to me, knowing of my apathy.

Okay, whatever.  I got on and bounced around the street in front of our house.  Immediately I felt the difference.  Oh, I realized.  Mountain biking might actually be a fun thing.

Lo and behold, it is!

It was a beautiful spring day on Friday, so Mag and I decided to rent us some real bikes and go a-mountain biking.  After looking at different trail options, we ruled out anything that said "family friendly" as well as anything that said "highly technical".  We ended up settling on a nice longish intermediate trail that Wolfgang recommended.

I spent about two minutes getting some online tips, and then we headed to the bike shop.

It was way fun.  It was also work in a lot of areas, and got tricky in places.  But it was just challenging enough to leave us wanting more.  Like skiing, perhaps?  Or crack?

We stopped to rest and get a couple of pics after a particularly challenging ascent.

smiley for the double selfie

how I was actually feeling

And in many ways, going downhill was even more difficult.  But we both made it through the entire course without a crash despite several "almosts".  In some ways, I think maybe we were too cautious.  Seems like at least one of us should have bit it at some point.  Maybe I should have at least embellished one of the almost-crashes, to make the day complete.

Until next time...