Anatomy of a Mountain Biker

The world of mountain biking is a strange and beautiful place.  Everything from the gear a rider uses, to the media updates world wide to the constant advances in the technology used-riders find inspiration and quench their thirst everywhere, at all hours of the day.  Being relatively new to this world means I can still remember some of my initial impressions of this sport- the stigmas, the quirks and the fascinations of what people do in the world of mountain biking.
Lets talk about the gear for a second.  It can either look like you are setting out to let it all hang out, particularly if you are wearing the cushy butt shorts that are a littlllleee tooo small for you...or you can look like you're gearing up for combat against a tiger.  In my time on the trails, I have seen a couple of sets of women's specific mountain biking shorts that did not make you look like you were hiding more than just a cushy butt pad in your shorts and as a result my full support for padding has been a long, hard resistance.
As a rider, you have the nifty little padded gloves, because it seems the response to anything mountain biking clothing related is to add more padding (which is a positive thing in hind sight...) You will need a backpack to carry the 2+ liters of water along with you because you never know what you might encounter out there or how lost you might become.  You'll carry a light, even though you are going out for an 8:00 am ride, your patch kit, pump, rape whistle and phone (for Strava and emergencies).  Your chapstick and sunglasses are at the bottom and will likely both be needed approximately a quarter mile into the ride.  For those who suffer from bad bad cases of hanger it is wisest to carry a 2 day supply of clif bars and bloks in your cute little bike-specific backpack's top pocket.  Make sure it is easy to access in loo of the hanger attack, so as to prevent you from lashing out irrationally at your biking partner, innocent passerby, small woodland creature, etc.  This puts your pack load weighing in at about 47.5 lbs. (approx 21.5kg)
While riding, especially if you are not in the greatest shape, not unlike yours truly, you start to sweat.  A lot.  Who am I kidding, even if you're in good shape, dare I say great shape, you sweat a lot.  There are moments of discomfort because you are sweating so much.  Mostly because you are not in the tropics, it is not that humid and there is no excuse for your body to be releasing this much water without you surely dying at any moment.  You sweat in places you didn't know you could sweat- like your forearms and your calves.  You sweat down below where you really wish  you weren't sweating because you have a big cushy butt pad on that is only making it worse.  However there are ways to combat the sweat: headbands that mop up the sweat off your brow to keep it from running into your eyes and "vapor wicking" materials that will let the sweat drift right off of your body as you glide beneath the trees (keep in mind you need speed for something like this to occur...hard pressed when you're going up a hill).  All of these different articles costing approximately $150 give or take.
Once you arrive back at your start point having lost three pounds of water weight, you notice the tingling in your toes from pushing on pedals for the last 2 hours.  After the tingling, the weird walk rears its ugly face as your body remembers how to stand up again and finally the sensation of taking off your helmet, or being born again as a friendly fellow rider once put it. With the ride behind you, the next task of paramount importance is to find food.
That being said, the nutrition options will surely overwhelm you.  The second you decide to give your body exactly what it needs to be the best hill climbing machine the world has ever seen, you realize there are about 2 million options to put in your mouth.  There is a lot to be said about the choices people are making when it comes to the fuels they are putting into their bodies-both on trail and off.  I have recently noticed, having to severely minimize my sugar intake, that most of the nutritional options have an incredible range of things in them to "make you go fast."  Some stick to the easy ingredient of sugar.  Others have random ingredients that you are pretty sure belong under the kitchen sink in the cleaning supplies area.  While others have the most specific ingredients known to mankind, like chia seeds harvested off of Mama Sonilli's quarter acre farm in Nicaragua- organically grown and harvested only on a quarter moon.  I remember, or at least I think I remember, when the only fuel options for bars were power bar and clif bar.  Now there are goo packets, bars, bloks, more goo packets, drinks, powders, boosting mixes, recovery formulas and pastes.  My personal favorite is anything non-cherry flavored and dripping with the speed of a thousand wild mustangs- I need all the help I can get.
One truly amazing thing about this sport is it exhibits a miraculous display of camaraderie, that is of course assuming you are staying out of everyone's way and not messing with their abilities to PR.  I joke, but honestly, I have actually experienced next to nothing in the negative when it comes to meeting strangers on the trail.  Mountain bikers seem to be pretty happy people.  Maybe it's because they are physically working so hard to be where they are that they don't have spare energy to be a jerk or perhaps they realize, especially when they see someone like me huffing and puffing my way up a hill, that they were at that point at one time too and appreciated the smile they experienced from a passerby at one time also.  The words of encouragement and feeling of community I have experienced from both female and male riders have made me love the sport even more.
Just like anything, there are absolutely catty people out there too who are the greatest riders ever and will be the first to tell you.  They'll give you unsolicited beta and generally be the fun-sucker of the day, so ride quickly or slowly depending and do everyone a solid and don't be one of those people.
Mountain bikers are constantly fighting battles for rights to trails.  Unfortunately, like everything there are always two sides to a battle and in this case, getting anything resolved, like proper trail access is often sluggish to come to pass. It takes just a few people to give an entire group a bad reputation for the damage caused by riding at certain times of the year, and unfortunately the more times it happens the harder it is for people to be willing to compromise.  This battle continues here in Santa Cruz and has strong parties on both sides fighting for what they believe is right.

All any of us can really do is ride respectfully.  When I say respectfully I think of not running over the menacing little dog trying to bite your tires or elbow checking the two ladies power walking with purpose who pretend to not hear you or rutting out the trail when you know you should give it another day.  The beauty of the places we are lucky enough to ride is they are there to be shared and enjoyed by more than just bikers. It's a coexistence situation and as far as I'm concerned, we're existing and doing so in an incredible fashion.

Helmets are sexy,
M.

Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel.  But ride. ~Eddy Merckx

"Oh the places you'll go" ~Dr. Seuss

Journeys from Home

What do you write about when you aren't anywhere but home for a while?
It seems ridiculous seeing as I was originally able to write a ton about random things like going to a farmers market or going swimming as it was in a place so foreign to me at the time (Hawaii) or to write about climbing in a different state as I hadn't been there before (Colorado), but now that I have cooled my jets a little bit for the "winter" season, I am finding it hard to grasp the motivation needed to write.
That being said, I realized I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world- the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.  Many people spend their whole lives without ever setting sights on these beautiful giant trees or experiencing the freezing waters of the central coastline of the United States.  The southern sea otters and gray whales migrating leave you with an incredible connection to the world around you, no matter how many times you've seen them.  There is something to be said about breathing in the eucalyptus and redwood scent as you ride a trail or step out onto your front porch.  I hear the blue jays and chickadees and sparrows calling in the morning instead of parrots and Japanese pheasants.  There are three fluffy cats living next door who come over to hang out in the morning and watch the birds in the bird bath.  There's the raccoons walking through the brush at night outside the window and the deer eyeing the garden from the other side of the fence.
There are trails just up the road leading into several different state parks or into the backside of the university's upper campus.  Mountain lions, bobcats and deer frequent these pathways as they are the routes less traveled and quiet for most of the year.  The nights are cold here for the most part with more stars than you could ever hope to see if the night is clear.  The mornings are quiet and cool with blankets up to my ears not wanting to get out of bed.
There are so many beautiful places here and yet because I call it home I feel like I need to adventure away from it to have a new experience, when in fact there is so much here still left unexplored.  I am learning more and more there does not need to be a big trip planned in order to have new experiences and enjoy new sites.  There are plenty of new opportunities close to home often overlooked or forgotten that can keep a mind and body occupied and inspired.
I met a woman the other day who came into the shop to rent a board to go paddling for her first time.  She said she had lived here for 35 years and had never been out on the water.  Not once.  I asked her what her change of heart was and she said she saw a whale spout in the distance.  In my mind, I'm thinking, "just one little spout?  Geez..."  I imagine it was probably a couple of miles off shore and nothing more than a little puff of air, but it had inspired her to come and get a board and do something she had never done before (keep in mind she wasn't going by herself, but had a friend along for the journey with their own board).  This got me thinking about how this woman had lived here over a decade longer than my whole lifespan and had never ventured out into the water.  To many of you, myself included, this seems ridiculous, as most of us have a special place in our hearts and lives for the water, but for some it is a boundary, a no pass zone.  Her story gave me a new bit of inspiration to explore places I haven't been before here in the Santa Cruz mountains and along the coastline.  It isn't far from home and I can get there easily enough, but when you think of something as a boundary zone, we no longer see it as an option for exploration and growth.  Basically, kudos to a woman over twice my age who is going out to do something new- you're inspiring.
Now that the rain has shown up, even if for a brief moment, the trails are delicate and need some time away from my bike tires, but I'm confident the exploration will continue once the storm passes.
To all of my friends near and far- thank you for thinking of me on my corner life day.  I am grateful for all of you as you are what make my life so special and peppered with amazing experiences and adventures.  Travel safely, the roads are wet now (finally!).

-M.

~We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. -Jawaharial Nehru