Laughing all the way

We have a great new mountain bike trail in Northfield. The Sechler Park River Bottoms Trail was built by members of the Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT) club a few months ago and runs along the Cannon River. I've had the chance to ride it with Owen a couple of times and had great fun.

We had a fresh layer of snow last week and I was itching to get out and ride my Beargrease on the trail again. Owen wasn't free to ride and since I'm a beginner when it comes to mountain biking I didn't want to ride alone - I think it's safer to ride with a buddy plus it's more fun! - so I contacted Griff Wigley (friend and blogger at Mountain Bike Geezer) to see if he was free to ride with me. Griff was free so we set a time to meet.

It was sunny and about 28 degrees when we headed out on the Sechler Park trail last Thursday afternoon. The trail was snow covered but fairly well packed by other mountain and fat bikes that had been out not he trail before us. We set off on the main trail then, just as I'd hoped, Griff led me off the main trail to explore some sections of the trail I hadn't ridden before - sections known as The Spine and The Velodrome.

Well, riding those more technical sections of the trail certainly was a challenge! I managed to fall off my bike a few times and had to put a foot down to catch myself from falling over many times. I found it a bit scary to try the new-to-me parts of the trail but Griff patiently talked me through new things and demonstrated how to ride each section before I gave it a go. Though the ride was a challenge, it was also great fun and I found myself laughing pretty much all the way (even when I was falling down or getting up after my falls).
Here I am right after a fall. I decided to make a snow angel while I was there.
Photo by Griff Wigley
Griff took some pictures of me riding (and falling) and also put together a video clip of me attempting different parts of the trail. He also blogged about our ride on his Mountain Bike Geezer blog and on the CROCT blog.

Click on the link to view Griff's video of me riding my fatbike - http://vimeo.com/117544728

You can also view the video, see more pics and read what Griff had to say about our ride at the links below.

Click HERE to read the Mountain Bike Geezer post

Click HERE to read Griff's post on CROCT

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