Mountain biking!

Even though I don’t need another activity or hobby to spend my money on, my daughter Brittany and I went on our first mountain bike ride today. We went with her boyfriend Eric and he showed us the ropes, since he is experienced on the trails. We don’t own mountain bikes so we went to Rock ‘N’ Road Cyclery to rent a couple of Specialized “Stump Jumpers”.



We had a hard time finding an appropriate sized bike for Brit because she is so short.



After getting our bikes, we headed to the trails. We went to the Aliso Canyon Wilderness Park in Laguna Niguel. Brittany was worried about mountain biking due to a pretty nasty accident that she had when she was 10 years old. She did really well however, despite some sizable downhill sections and some fairly steep climbs. She stayed on 2 wheels, which is more than I can say. I ate it less than 10 minutes into the ride. My clipless pedals were way too tight and on an especially steep incline, I couldn’t get out of them in time. So, down I went. I brushed myself off, regained my composure and asked Brittany to stop laughing. After that, the ride was really cool. It really is so much more fun to ride and run on trails rather than on the road. And the scenery is absolutely gorgeous!



We are so lucky to live in the area that we do. I can’t believe that I have lived here all of my life and am just now discovering all of these amazing places. Next weekend I plan to go back and demo a different bike. I am going to try the Specialized “Epic” which, according to the girl at Rock ‘N’ Road, will be better suited to the type of riding that I plan on doing. I plan on getting a couple of hours of riding in and then do an hour or two of trail running.



Paul