A Taste of the Dirt

Hey guys,

Who here mountain bikes? First off, my hat comes off to you. Today I went mountain biking with my buddy at Umstead State Park, and we found out that riding in the trails is super difficult. Granted, we almost got lost for a very long time, but we got through the ride in one piece, more or less.

I found that taking the shock of all those roots into your handlebar grips can make your hand muscles more sore than your legs, which was crazy. But as we got through the trails, we found how hard it is to handle your bike correctly and safely through difficult jumps and bumps in the trails. Also, due to the soggy ground conditions, we had to be extra careful about what line of the trail we chose to take, so as to not skid out and crash. So for anyone considering taking up mountain biking, these are all considerable topics you'll need to address while riding to be safe.

Here's todays story: So, like I said, me and my buddy were headed out to mountain bike this morning. I was taking it as a recovery and I'm just introducing him into the sport of cycling. We originally were headed to Crabtree Park for work on balance and to bike the twisty trails, the trails I've so named for the twists and turns they feature in the terrain. But, as we get to Crabtree, we enter the park only to see the signs saying TRAILS CLOSED. That was disappointing, but we weren't going to be stopped. I thought, "Hey, let's go to Umstead and just explore some trail" and he agreed after some convincing. So we get to Umstead at the Reedy Creek entrance, and I pump up our tires and we get on our way. I told him we would just jump on the first trail we saw off of the larger main trail, which happened very quickly. We started off on the trail, but after about 10 minutes of riding, it petered out into forest. So, I taught my friend how to bushwhack and we continued in a straight line. Eventually, we got to an absolutely awesome trail! It followed a creek and featured quite a few creek crossings and jumps. We were having a good time, until we realized we were over our time limit for turning around. So, we decided to follow the trail, believing it would loop us back around. That's the first thing about Umstead: it doesn't loop back. We were riding pretty far, and we eventually stopped when we reached the boundary of Umstead State Park, marked by yellow markers on the trees. At this point, we were both absolutely drenched in sweat, water, mud, and dirt alike from the creek crossings and muddy trails. Our bikes were likewise, but up until that point we were having a great time. But, we did need to get back, and so we put our serious faces on. But, we tried to go faster to make it back in time, and that made us have a few more errors than riding on the way up. I hit a root that I didn't see and busted my knee on my fork and started to bleed down my leg and stained my socks pretty good. My buddy messed up his shoulder hitting a tree he couldn't duck around, and so we were feeling beat up by these trails. But, we needed to get back, and so rather than follow the trail, we decided to go the good old fashioned way: bushwhack again. We bushwhacked our way close to the sound of a road, which turned out to be I-40, and we reached a swampy area. We got off our bikes and waded through dangerous looking grass up to our waists and a swamp with water up to our knees. We walked as best we could holding our bikes above our heads through the swamp, so not to get them too wet. At this point, we were very desperate, and very tired, and very hungry, so we needed to get out quickly. We were so close to passing out from fatigue when we finally found the exit, which spit us out onto the main road right next to our car. So, moral of the story is, make sure you've got the time and the skills to take on the trails of mother nature. It doesn't always play nice, and it can be dangerous but fun at the same time.

All in all, mountain biking is a great way to switch up the sometimes boring sights of road riding and forces you to pay uber-close attention to the trails unless you'll wreck. It can work much different muscle groups and switch up your training aerobically, and it gives you a nice refresher to training. But also, you've got to weigh the risks: while road riding presents the risk of cars, mountain riding represents a higher chance of bad crashes and getting lost or fighting with a large wildlife creature. So, be careful when choosing which method of training to go with. I'd recommend doing both, just to keep yourself having fun and entertained. But guys, be careful out there. You all know that I don't want any of you to get as many injuries that I have, its not fun. So please, be careful for me.

Happy training!