“Where have you been riding over the last couple of weeks?”

Our authors come from all over the world.  When I posed that question to them, the variety of the answers amazed me.

On this diverse planet, at any given time, mountain bikers are leaving tracks in myriads of different places.  Over the coming weeks, we’d like you to submit a photo, a short paragraph, and (optionally) a link or track-log with more info about the ride.

We’ll share your stories here.

Read on to see some of our responses!

“Dust on May Road”, Neil Ennis

 

1. “Quickie” in Whitehorse, Yukon, by Jenn Roberts

“Quickie”, Whitehorse, Yukon, by Jenn Roberts

That’s Jenn on the bike, the photo was taken by her husband.  She writes:

We were both out to burn off some energy before heading out to a friend’s annual Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner.  The bike is a 2010 Salsa Mukluk, my friend drilled out the rims and my awesome pogies are Dogwood Designs.  This trail is a favourite of mine, winter and summer, because I can access it from my front door.

Jenn has a great set of “Winter Cycling” photos on Flickr. You won’t believe how cold the mercury drops in some of those photos!

2. “6 Mile Run”, Somerset, NJ, by Mike Brennan

“Muddiest Ride” by Mike Brennan

Mike says this was the muddiest ride of his life.  He writes:

I did this ride the first week in January, at the 6 Mile Run trail network in Somerset, NJ.  I was riding alone, and only travelled a mere 1.5 miles before turning around!  It took almost an hour of constant trudging and stopping to scrape the mud out.  The mud would stick to the tires, and then collect debris like a strong glue, clogging my cogs and piling between the front wheel and fork.  It was like riding through glue.

No damage to the bike! Just my ego.

I asked Mike if it was still better than watching TV.  His reply:

Of course! Even washing the bike is better than that.

3. “Soquel Demonstration Forest”, Nisine Marks, CA, by Ryan Simonovich

“Soquel Demonstration Forest”, by Ryan Simonovich

Ryan writes:

I rode at Soquel Demonstration Forest with my team. Demo consists of long fire road climbs and awesome single track descents.

After climbing for about 5 Miles we descended another 5 Miles on the Ridge Trail and Sawpit Trail. Ridge/Sawpit is one of the most popular routes so the trails were pretty beat up, especially since we have had little rain this winter. After another 2 mile climb we descended Braille Trail. Braille Trail was in a lot better shape. Braille is my favorite trail at Demo because of the flow and abundance of jumps.

What makes Demo so hard is the 4 Mile climb back to the parking lot.

Overall a good end to my week!

4. “Mike’s Birthday Ride” by Rivers Mitchell

“Mikes Birthday Ride”, by Rivers Mitchell

Rivers writes:

This didn’t start out as a birthday ride, not to my knowledge at least but as we were eating breakfast Mike let it slip that it was his birthday!

We could not have asked for a better winter day, it was cold (for us) with beautiful blue skies and the trails were damp but not too mucky. I had only ridden once in the past 2 months…so this was a much needed ride. The photo is from one of the amazing viewpoints in the partridge hills trail system, but it’s on private land and is about to have a house built on it! The ride down was fast, flowy and fun! Thanks for the great ride Mike and to another year of experience and awesomeness!

5. “The Mango Run”, Kobble Creek, Queensland Australia, by Neil Ennis

“Bubbling Selfie”, by Neil Ennis

It’s the middle of summer here.  It’s so hot and humid that long tough rides are out of the question.  The temperature at Kobble Creek hit 42C (108F) last weekend.

Rather than just give up, we decided to take a short ride along some fire trails beside Lake Samsonvale at Kobble Creek. At the end of one of the trails is an old mango tree, laden with ripe fruit.  We all collected as many mangoes as we could fit on our bikes or in our packs, then jumped in the lake for a swim.

Most of us kept some clothes on, except for Paul.  He’s a free spirit and decided to remove every shred of clothing before jumping in.

We arrived back at the cars after the ride cooler than when we had started, and fully clothed

How about you?

Have you ridden some place interesting recently?  If you’d like to share it with us, please email us a photo, a short description of your adventure, and an optional link or track log.