I ride mountain for the reasons you do, but I guess my adrenaline threshold is lower because a good technical XC/trail course does it for me right now, and is about all I feel safe doing in my current state of riding alone. I'd like to try downhill riding at some point I think, but I'll never be one to get big air.

There is some "in between" and not all us XCer's are cruising down nearly paved fire-roads for the scenery

Well made flowy track with a few technical challenges thrown in taken at 15-20 mph....O so much fun!!!