On Sunday September 23, Mike, Rory, Tamra, Doug and Carol and I made the 1.5 hour trek up to the White Pine Forest for a mountain bike ride. The temp was quite cool when we got out of the cars. We bundled up in our jackets for the first few miles of flat riding.

As soon as we began our uphill on the trail, the jackets came off and fingerless gloves went on. This was new terrain to Rory, Tamra and Doug. This uphill section is fairly steep but not as steep as the other trails would could have taken up to the top of the mountain. The ride up was pretty non-technical, a relatively wide and smooth trail. It was good to be in the trees away from all traffic and traffic noise. We did not even see any motorcycles this day. In fact, we never saw anyone using the extensive trail network up there besides us. If White Pine was closer to a larger population center it would be much more crowded.

Once we got close to the top there were a few really beautiful views. Everyone was excited for the downhill to come. The first part of the downhill consists of a very narrow single track. However it's very, very smoth, one could almost ride this section on a road bike. After a bit of this there is a fairly steep downhill section that can be somewhat scary. Had Corrie, gone on this ride, I would have warned him of this section, he might have wanted to walk it. Doug went over his bars on this section. Might have grabbed a bit too much brake. He was unhurt and showed no visible signs of injury.

After we cleared this section we entered really thick forest. Because the forest is so thick it's very dark in there, it's like entering another world. In here, there is a lot of tight, twisty singletrack, slightly technical in spots but nothing very hard. Once we finished this section, Rory asked if we would be doing anymore of that. Sadly, we were most of the way back down, if we wanted more downhill, we'd have to do more uphill! Everyone seemed fine with this except for Carol she'd had enough climbing for the day, so from there she went one way and we went another.

It started out relatively flat but then grew steeper. We all stopped and took off the windbreakers we'd put on for the downhill earlier. Our trail soon came to an end onto a road, Mike and I had a discussion whether or not we should go left or right to get back on a trail. Turns out we could have gone either way but it was better that we went Mike's way as we found out later that my way had a lot of fallen trees. Once we got back on trail we began going up, and up and then we went really up! Rory got off the bike because of the steepness on one section. I came up behind and cleared that section and Mike came up behind me and he cleared it. Everyone else got off and pushed. Doug was disgusted to learn that Mike was 57 years old and was able to clear this section while he got off and pushed. I knew my "dear ole dad" could do it. We finished this section of trail with a steep downhill which we had to turn around and go back up.

Turns out that Tamra has asthma and this steep uphill about did her in. I was worried she was going to pass out coming up this. She assured us that she was fine and told us to continue on. I was glad to see she finally caught her breath. I was starting to think she might want to kill me for taking her on this section. But we all agreed that it was worth doing the extra climbing so that we could have more fun on the downhill.

The last two miles of trail we pretty technical and rough. I was wishing I had a full suspension bike for this. If Cory had some along on this ride we would not have gone this way. I'm sure we'd have never gotten him on a mountain bike again. We all made it back to the cars again in one piece and I was worn out. All the climbing we did that day, about 3300 feet, did not wear me out as much as those two miles of downhill did. Everyone seemed to have a good time and want to come back again.

Steve L, you've got to convince Cory to come do some of these rides, they are not so bad, you've done them!