Kingdom Trails

Yesterday I mountain biked for four hours on the Kingdom Trails in East Burke, Vermont. These trails are fantastic! Check out the link to their home page. There is a good video that shows the trails and the area. There are over 100 miles of single track trail designed specifically for mountain biking. I have seen the occasional trail runner there as well. The trail runners who live in that area must be loving the mountain bikers for the awesome trail system! We bought season passes yesterday because Kevin and I plan to do a lot of riding there this summer. I am thinking I will make a midweek trip sometimes for some runs as well. With all the steep relentless climbs and the tricky descents, it will be excellent running grounds!

One of the things I like most about mountain biking is that there is a lot of skill involved. Mt bikers can improve on their skills throughout their lifetimes. It is progressive. The more you do it, the better you get. It takes a lot of practice! For me, that is part of the incentive. I like to work at something and see results. I've run as fast as I am ever going to run. Running is still fun and I love it, but mountain biking fills in that little void.

Kevin likes to remind me that mountain biking is what you make it. I can see that. There are riders who are content to roll down the trails and avoid any challenging sections. There are riders who are all about going fast. There are dare-devils out there who like stunts and highly technical stuff. I don't strive to be any of those types, I strive to improve my skills so I can ride with complete confidence and control! So when we ride, I like to follow Kevin and try to learn from him. Kevin rides along at a decent clip, but has very refined skills. He can "step up" onto big rocks or stumps very calmly and quietly. He can take tight turns while speeding down steep slopes without sliding. He can roll over narrow bridges without hesitating. I'll get there eventually!

My riding has improved since we last rode at the Kingdom Trails in September. The more I improve the more fun riding gets. It's hard to imagine it can be any more fun than it already is, but since I have a lot of room for improvement there must be a lot of room for more fun!