I am a mountain biker. I don’t do it for the exercise or because it is an “in” thing to do. I do it because I love it. In fact, I pretty much hate all other forms of exercise. Running, lifting weights, sit ups and on and on and on. I don’t like doing any of it. My wife, Candace, on the other hand is a runner. She loves to run. She will roll out of bed at 5am, kiss her dazed husband and go meet her dad for a four mile run.

Now that I am feeling pretty confident on a bike and it is growing warmer here in Virginia, I convinced her to go on her first off-road two-wheeled journey with me. I was a little nervous even though I was taking her to Blackwater Creek, the easiest track in our area. You just never know how someone is going to do and I wanted the first time to be a good experience. We also invited another couple that rides, Steve and Bobbi, so Candace would have another woman to ride with.

On the ride over to the trail I was giving her some pointers about descending and going over obstacles and such. When we first got there we took about 20 minutes in the parking lot riding around and getting her acquainted with the shifters and brakes. Once she was feeling comfortable and Steve and Bobbi arrived we hit the trail.

I was amazed at how well Candace did. We started on some flat, straight singletrack that followed the creek for a ways. There were a few roots and ruts that she took with no problem at all. She didn’t get timid and slow down like most newbies. She kept her speed up like I told her and rolled right over them. The first climb we came to Bobbi was riding in front of her and didn’t shift soon enough and we all ended up waddling our bikes to the top of the hill. The next hill that came up, Candace had plenty of room and shifted smoothly down as we approached the incline and she peddled her way right to the top with no problem.

After that big climb there was, obviously, a pretty long descent with a significant drop off on the left hand side. I had warned Candace about this and made sure she knew the smartest thing to do was get off the bike and walk it down if she got nervous. Well she held on and rode the entire track down like a pro. Much different from my newbie days of holding on and then pitching over the edge.

We picked our way further down the track and she did have to get off and walk a couple spots that had some slick rocks and bigger obstacles. Also by this time she was getting pretty tired, so we all U-turned it back to a bridge and crossed over to a gravel road and made our way back to the paved portion of the trail. We finished up with three miles of paved trail.

All in all it was a great ride and she did ten times better then I expected and that I did on my first ride. We are already planning on going out again after we get some better equipment to make things a little more comfortable for her. I am really excited that we had a good time because there is no one else I would rather ride with and I am looking forward to bringing her along on a lot more trips.