Get out and ride! Why autumn is a great time for mountain biking

9/23/08 Posted in Cover Story  |  1 Comment

When the publisher of Healthy & Fit Magazine, Tim Kissman, invited me for a mountain bike ride, I couldn’t refuse. I didn’t think it would be that difficult. I was expecting a nice casual ride through the woods—something scenic with views of the Grand River at a moderate pace. 

Boy, was I wrong.

I wasn’t expecting to be zooming down steep hills that had a sand pit at the bottom. I didn’t think I’d be hopping off my bike; only to pick it up over the large fallen trees that I couldn’t ride over. And never in a million years did I think I’d be riding over rickety planks pushed together to form some version of a ramp on a trail called the Swamp Thing.

Good thing Tim was with me. Tim, who uses the trails at Burchfield Park, in Holt, to train for mountain bike racing, has ridden for years and knew the trail like the back of his hand. That came in handy when it came time for a warning about a fallen log or last second tips on how to steer through the sand without falling over (grip the handlebars tight and peddle like crazy!).

While peddling into the wooded area where the trail started, I was given the option of a smooth rolling or a more technical route. Needless to stay I chose the smooth route. This was, after all, my first mountain bike ride. But apparently whoever laid out the trails has a different definition of smooth because I wasn’t quite ready for what was ahead. 

I gradually learned that going up hills wasn’t that hard, you just have to get going at a good pace to make it up. It was going down that gave me some problems. Picture this: A beginner, me, looking down about a 30 degree angle of a hill and noticing that once at the bottom I can either make a sharp turn in a patch of sand to continue on the path or ride face first into a tree trunk. 

So while Tim headed down the hills as if he didn’t even notice they were there, I did so cautiously. I was careful not to go too fast, while keeping my hands on the brakes. I learned not to use too much brake down a hill, though, because that made it feel like, any second, my bike would flip over forward.

And then there were logs. These weren’t just logs I’d see by my family’s fireplace, but huge fallen tree trucks blocking the trail. I came to the first one, adventurously taking Tim’s advice. 

“Just go over it!” he yelled. 

I watched him do it, so how hard could it be, right? I took aim, peddled hard and tried to pull my bike and body over the log, but it didn’t work. I crashed. Apparently you’re supposed to lift up a little bit and keep your pedals up. But I’m a quick learner, so I got it right the next time, and because I also know my limits, if the log ahead looked too big, I got off and walked my bike over it. 

Things got easier. Soon I was weaving through trees that seemed just far enough apart for one bike to squeeze through. As I got more comfortable, I also increased my speed. At no point were we going the full speed that Tim would normally ride through the trail, but I think I was going at a pretty good pace, for a first-timer anyway. 

There was one other time that I opted to get off and walk rather than chance a broken leg, or broken anything, for that matter. It was a ramp that was about 10 inches across, which didn’t leave me much room for error. An error would have me lying in the muddy ditch below it. On top of its tiny size, it also zigzagged, forcing the rider to actually turn on the ramp. Better safe than sorry, right? I’ll give it a go the next trip out, maybe. 

All and all it was a good ride. Besides the fact that I didn’t get hurt I ended up having a lot of fun. And it was a decent workout too. There were several times I was winded after heading up hills. Before heading out I thought that it would be just a good leg workout, but even my arms and core were a bit sore after the ride due to all the weaving through the trees. 

One last thing. You should always wear a helmet. I didn’t fall down on my trip out, but there were a few times I thought for sure I was going over. Plus, there were plenty of branches that came out of nowhere and poked me in the helmet. That would hurt if I weren’t wearing one. It was a comfort just knowing that the helmet was there and it’d be the plastic that would hit the forest floor and not my head. 

- by Sherri Powers