My first mountain bike.

I purchased my first mountain bike during early summer of 2011. I immediately fell in love with off road and trail riding. I had never felt so engaged while on a bike before. Riding off road requires complete attention, and a higher level of skill than I had even anticipated.  I had to learn to visually track my surroundings and plan my steering while maneuvering the bike up and over obstacles.  I learned the hard way, after a few crashes that is, that you cannot have one without the other.  My new love for mountain biking came hand in hand with a desire to build trails to ride. During most of that summer, I was up at my grandparents property along Lake Michigan.  They gave me permission to build trails through the woods, so I spent half my time there clearing out trails and the other half riding them.

Part of the technical section in one of the trails I built

I am very happy to have found this passion. It is now one of my favorite physical activities, and I experienced a noticeable increase in my fitness by the end of that summer.  I will attend Quest University for my college education, and where it is located is refereed to as the mountain biking capital of Canada. I can’t wait ride the trails there!