You can do it Emily! This ride was just what you needed. Someday you will ride this same trail and be amazed that it scared you once! Don't let the classification set you back, any trail is a beginner trail if you are willing to walk parts of it.

You might want to take the trail in sections. Stop and look and pick your line. Sometimes speed helps you over the stuff, and sometimes you need to go more slowly and pick your way through it. Switchbacks are hard, I still walk some of them. I also will unclip one foot if I am not confident. And I have my clips as loose as they can go.

A skill you can work on at home and your easy trails is track standing, slow stopping and starting and changing directions, back-pedaling to position your cranks so you can avoid roots and rocks, all without touching the ground.

I rode a trail today that I rode a few months ago when I was starting out. It terrified me. No ride through the woods, this single track has a lot of technical rock sections, and exposure (basically riding on the side of a cliff, not straight down, but close. Today I cleared a lot of the rocks, walked some, but wasn't even concerned about falling down a mountain. See, it can be done. You can do it!

Y