Whenever its got too cold to ride on the road some of my friends get their riding fix by doing some mountain bike riding. It sounds and looks like fun but I've never joined them mostly because I don't own a mountain bike. I have done some mountain bike riding out west in Moab on vacation and few other times have and enjoyed it but never really went any further than that. This past Saturday the high was only suppose to get to 35 degrees which is too cold for me to ride on the road. Lucky Chris emailed me asking me if I wanted to join him in Mercer County Park for a mountain bike ride and I decided why not.
Chris has an extra mountain bike so I didn't have to worry about finding or borrowing any equipment. We met at the boat house at 9am and the temperature was all of 25 degrees but it was sunny with no wind so it wasn't that bad. The bike Chris had for me fit pretty well and after a quick ride around the parking lot we were off.
Before I got use to the pedals and gears we were in the woods and I was more concerned about not hitting the trees than learning how to shift. I was a little surprised how narrow the trail was but got use to it. I consider myself to be expert at handling a road bike but mountain biking requires a slightly different mind and skill set. It did take me long to realize that I would need to learn some new skills to not fall on my ass and keep up with Chris. Things that you avoid at all cost on a road bike like sand and tree limbs are just part of normal mountain bike trail. So when I come over a small rise and see a sandy path with roots and tree limbs across it the road biker in my mind tells me to stop and walk the bike along the trail. Then I see Chris breeze through it and I tell myself that this is a mountain bike and it can handle it.
Mercer County Park has a wide variety of trails that could keep you busy for a good part of the day. There are narrow deep wood trails along small streams, sandy trails along the lake and some open grass land. Chris lead me through a number of different trails and I lost track of where I really was but I starting to relax and enjoy it. I was still cautious but Chris gave me some good tips and as I practiced some more I was got use to jumping over tree limbs and handling the twisting trails. There are a couple of cool areas in the woods. One is called the bowl which is a little like a half pipe on a ski slope where you can ride in and out of a sandy bowl shaped area. There is also a place along the trail that has some ramps and other man made obstacle. I didn't try any of them but Chris tried the pivoting ramp out a couple of times. The first time up the ramp it didn't pivot correctly because it was frozen to the ground so Chris had to bail but made it OK the second time.
After about an hour and a half I lost sight of Chris and must have made a wrong turn because he was no where in sight. I figured Chris would give me up for dead at some point and come back to his car so I headed back towards the parking lot. Once I got there I saw John P who also decided to do some mountain biking. Ten minutes later Chris was back. I decided I had enough for today but John and Chris headed out for another loop. All and all it was a lot of fun and something I think I would like to do more of.
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