Chickys explore Explore Park

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Tonight was our first night for the all women's ride at Explore Park. Weather was perfect. Low 70's, low humidity, light breeze. A perfect evening for a mountain bike ride. This ride was "geared" for the 1st time mountain biker or female biker who is intimidated by riding w/ the boys. We had 6 riders attend of all ability levels. Some had experience riding trails while some were back on the bike for the first time in many, many years.

We headed out on the beginner section at Explore Park. When you hear "beginner" you think..oh..flat, rolling, no roots...piece of cake! Well not so at Explore. While the trails are not super hard, they're not super easy either. Especially for the cyclist who has done most of her riding on the roads. Those doggone roots, rocks, and switchbacks can be darn-right terrifying!



Well we were not going to let this spoil our fun. Angelia, Moe, Jen and I started out for our first lap. We ran through the first section w/out a hitch. Then came some of the slight ups & downs. No problem. We dogged a little bit on the climbing switchbacks but everyone was still upright & smiling. (breathing a little hard, but still smiling) We re-grouped in the clearing before the last section. Everyone did great on the last section, despite the roots at the beginning. We decided to go back to the parking area to see if anyone else was coming. Sure enough, two more joined us...Kimberly & Missy.

After brief introductions, minor helmet & seat adjustments, we were on our way. We went on through the first section. Jen & Angelia went on ahead as Missy & Kimberly worked their way through the first section. Kimberly has been riding mostly road & Missy had not cycled in a looong time. They had super attitudes about tackling these trails. It was not easy but no one complained & they both smiled (most of the way) I went back to assist Moe w/ her chain..for some reason everytime she tried to shift before the steeper sections, she would throw the chain. No worries though, she snapped it back on & away we went. After finishing out the section, one of the first timers exclaimed "That was fun!" . (woo hoo..do I hear the words of a convert to mountain biking?)

We decided to do some exploring on the roads...(this was a bad idea) I remembered from our night rights in the winter w/ the boyz going down a gravel road that paralleled the river. Well I failed to mention to the rest of the girls that I am directionally challenged...not to mention the fact that we rode these gravel areas in the winter time in the pitch dark w/ headlamps to lead our way..so things looked totally different w/ daylight. Anywho we started down the road towards Mt Union Church. Jen went down first. I took my time & noticed Moe & Angelia waiting at the top of the hill. I hollered to them to come on...it won't be that bad....No sooner had we gotten down to the bottom of the hill when we realized..it leads to nowhere. Now I felt horrible. We had to climb up this steep hill! Well we all did just fine...spun up the hill, no biggie. We then decided to go down a different road that I thought would take us down by the encampments & the river. We cruised on down & lo & behold....a bathroom!!!!! Woo Hoo..no woods for these chickys! After our stop we started to head down to the river when the sign said...No Bikes beyond this point......Crap..that' means we gotta climb again. Back up we went.
Moe threw her chain again...no biggie, we can fix that. We spun back up the hill again. (I'm sure everyone was cursing me at this point...what's this crazy girl trying to do? Kill us?)

We decided to stick to the trails. Whilee Angelia, Jen, Moe & myself were busy climbing these hills, Missy & Kimberly were just cruising around the parking areas...they had the right idea. We met back up w/ them. They decided to call it a night but said they would definitely be back. The remaining 4 of us decided to do one more loop before daylight turned to dusk. Everyone went through the last lap much quicker & no falls or crashes! Way to go ladies..You all rocked!

Next week we'll be back at it again. Thanks for the comraderie & the fun ride!