Kristin Rides

This weekend I went to Hood River for a weekend of mountain biking at the Dirt Series, a women’s mountain biking skills clinic. I carpooled out there on Friday afternoon with a woman who had just moved to Portland July 1st. So I got to play tour guide all weekend, which is fun in Hood River since I love that place! We staked out a place in Tucker Park, a county park about 5 minutes away from downtown Hood River, which was perfect since we figured we wouldn’t really be at the campground much as the camp went from 8am-8pm the first day, and until 5pm the second. We went on a short hike Friday night to get a quick view of the Gorge, and then quickly passed out in our tents around 10:30pm.

The camp was set up to have skills in the morning, and  a ride in the afternoon. I met a ton of great people, mostly from the area but a few had traveled pretty far for the camp. I dont think I filled out the survey about our current skill level very well, because I didn’t feel too challenged with the skills and was wishing I was in a more advanced group. At the same time, I didn’t have some pretty basic skills down yet, so maybe that’s a good thing. We learned about quarter punches, manuals, high-speed cornering, etc. Lots and lots to learn…I found that I don’t keep my knees wide enough and I dont lunge enough when going down drops. There’s a lot to concentrate on!

The first ride day my group went out to the little Moab area of Syncline. I had myself moved up to a more advanced group, which turned out to be a great thing, because after that day I was moved up to the most advanced group. As the name suggests, Syncline is completely exposed, and it’s all rock. We climbed the double track and then spent a long time just every one taking turns with each drop. It was cool to see people completely afraid at first, barely making it over small drops, and by the end they were just bombing down the stuff. I went down everything, and was the only one who would brave the 8 foot vertical drop, which was insane. It wasn’t completely vertical, I definitly rolled down it, but I didn’t lunge enough and almost went over my handle bars. On this ride I discovered I have WAY more courage then I ever knew. I never balked. When I got to the point of no return, I simply told myself “LET GO OF THE BRAKES!” which saved me a number of times. People go over their handlebars because they hit their brakes, which is a huge no-no. Once I feel that “oh shit” of having my weight too far forward, I simply shift my weight back. It also really helped to have an amazing instructor spotting me and encouraging everyone. I figured if she could do it, why not me?

I felt pretty awesome after that, although I was kind of tired of riding for 4 seconds and then stopping constantly. So in the wee hours of the morning, me and Christy woke up and went and rode Post Canyon. It was a lot of fun, and got that “I just want to ride” feeling out of me. We did another round of skills clinics, then my group rode Post Canyon (again). This time I was bumped up to the most advanced group (there might have been one above us, i’m not 100% sure).

I had been riding the morning skills sessions in flat pedals, since its easier to bail on those then clipless, but I rode syncline clipped in. This time I rode flat, which is REALLY hard when you’re used to using your hamstrings to climb. I had to learn the clawing motion to get myself up those damn hills, and my ankles were starting to get tired! My first endo of the weekend occuring at a stunt on the way up to Family Man, that consisted of 3 successive stumps uphill, with a tiny little stick skinny back down. Even with the line of spotters, I managed to miss the skinny and end up on my forearms at the bottom. My handlebar whacked my hip, so I now have an enormous hematoma. Yay.

I rode some bridges I used to balk at, which was awesome. At Family man, I rode the teetor totter and a few other stunts. We cruised through Middle School and I rode down a 20 foot jump (ie, I rolled down it, I didn’t actually jump). Sadly, I really wanted to crush my nemesis–high speed switchbacks–on the way down, but I lost control following our instructor down and crashed just before the first one. From that point on I was pretty much done. I was tired, I landed right on my hematoma, I was just totally shaken up. I was really mad at myself for not riding the bridges back and being a total pansy, but I just couldn’t stop freaking out. So oh well, kind of ended on a bad note, but I will return to battle that damned spot once I practice my cornering some more.

To that end, I am going to build some stunts that I can drag to the nearby park, which basically are just big wooden boxes. I’m hoping if I just come up with all the dimensions (correctly), I can just have Home Depot cut it all down for me. Unless you have a table saw and want some beer in trade for some cutting.

To some it up:

Skills to learn/improve: Wheelie drops, quarter punch, manuals, wide knees, lunging on rolling drops, better leans into high-speed corners, one finger on the brakes (not 2), bunny hops

Stuff I learned: I am way better then I thought I was…I also have way more courage (stupidity) then most. I don’t know what it is…at some point I got over my fear and just started going for it (“no brakes!”). And it is awesome.