Roll With Me: Chronicles of a Mountain Biking Trip

"Get a bicycle. You won't regret it if you live." -Mark Twain

My first experience mountain biking was quite a trip. See, I'm not a mountain biker. The thought scared me to death! But hey, "do one thing every day that scares you", right?

 So my boyfriend, Anthony, and I headed over to the closest state park, which happened to have some fantastic mountain biking trails. We started out on an easy one, a trail called "homestead" and someone how got just a little lost and ended up doing a loop that wasn't prepared for. It may have been called Granny's Garden, but apparently Granny was a bad*** with no sense of self-preservation. We ended up following routes with names like "no fear chute" and "deliverance" instead of the original route on trails with names like "1st and 2nd stream". 

Even so, we each only fell a few times (but I may or may not have walked some of the more challenging obstacles- but come on, I'm a newbie.)

As for a little glimpse into what we each brought along. 

Anthony's Pack: Osprey Raptor- 14 liter

Bike lock, shoes, earbuds, helmet, multitool, bike tool, head lamp, gloves, ipod, bandana, skoal, lighter (No pictured: hydration bladder, which was in the pack)

Katie's Pack: Osprey Manta- 20 liter

Helmet, Keys, Carabiner, Ipod, Sunglasses, Trash bag, Hydration Bladder, Bathing suit, Deodorant, knife, bug balm, hair balm, sunscreen, tissues, allergy medication, Aspirin, banana, tampon, camera/case, shoes.

As you can see, I've got a little more than him, but we were debating jumping in the lake after our ride, hence the extras. 

Also, we each through in a sandwich from a local food co-op that we stopped at on our way to the park. 

The photos don't do these trails justice at all. They look so much more frightening in person!

After getting of track for quite awhile we stopped by the lake for lunch. 

Check out the second to last ingredient. Yeah. It says "love". 
Aw :)

If injuries bother you, skip this next photo.

I chickened out coming up to a obstacle, and decided a dead stop was better. Anthony ran into me, and his bike ran into him. Hopefully that will teach him to not follow so close!

We even joked about co-writing a "how our relationship survived mountain biking" post!

I'm a firm believer that being active together will either strengthen or end your relationship. I mean, they call tandem kayaks "couples councillors" at the boat shop near our house. Each adventure teaches us something new about ourselves, each other, and our relationship. We barely survived this trip, and loved every minute of it. Now I'm off to work on my skills and try it again!

What's the most frightening thing you've done this week?