First Time Mountainbiking

[hibiscus09]

Hi Adventure Girl! This was a trip we won through my husband's business and they advertised it as a "Family Adventure" trip. Usually on these trips, when they take us out on activities like horseback riding and the like, they choose beginner trails or activities, as there are a variety of people on the trips and a variety of ages. The mountain biking was listed for 8 years old and above. Luckily, my children are 14 and 19. There was one boy who looked to be about 11 years old and I don't think he was real amused. My daughter was actually in tears for a while and she's the 19 year old! It was pretty scary stuff even for me and I've road biked -- I can imagine how the people who didn't regularly ride a bike were feeling. One lady appeared to be in her 50s and she took a bad spill on the gravel (which is where I definitely did not want to fall). Anyway, she was bloody and dirty and looking like she needed a valium afterwards.

There were places where I was scared for the kids because it seemed like if you crashed you could slide down the mountain it was so steep off to the side. I guess the trees would have stopped us.

They drove us way up a mountain on a regular road in a van and dropped us off at what I suppose what the top of the course. The first part coming down was this awful bark stuff -- very hard to ride in -- I didn't like it. Then it just turned into a trail that was dirt, road, rocks, ditches, etc., and hairpin turns-- the turns were pretty hard to negotiate and people were falling a lot -- after that we went a ways on gravel, then to a single track area and I almost felt like I was riding through the bushes (LOL) -- , next it was back to dirt trails with the rocks, stumps and the like, then finally the last 4 miles or so we were back on the road -- so the mountain bike part was around 13 miles. We were staying in Beaver Creek Colorado (right next to Vail) and went up from Vail in the van. The trail crossed back and forth a lot down the mountain in places -- zig-zagged, I mean.

I never fell, but I can easily see how mountain bikers fall a lot!!