I went mountain biking for the first time this weekend. It was really cool. Diane, Anson, and I went to the Chugach Mountains for my introductory trip. We had on helmets and biker gloves to make us look experienced. Diane and Anson had done this trip before, but I had never been through here. The trail was an old dirt road twenty years ago, so it was relatively flat and wide. A good place to begin off road travel. The ride took us up through the pass to a lake at the base of Ptarmigan Peak. We stopped here for lunch and to watch Dal Sheep climbing on the side of the mountain. As we ate we saw a heard of mothers and young climb up and down the slopes. After they passed a group of three males came by with full grown horns. After lunch Anson and I went rock hopping on a pond next to the lake. It was full of the perfect glacial debris in such a manner that we could hop from one side of the pond to the other side twenty yards away.
On the way back it was mostly down hill which made it scary in parts. I had an old bike without any of the new shock absorbers or anything. So I shook around a lot as I traveled down the hills. I got going very fast as we were coming down this one particularly steep slope and almost lost control of the bike as I neared the edge of the trail overlooking a steep slope (scary). On ther other side of the trail was a steep slope and a boulder the size of texas waiting for me. My whole bike seemed to lift off the trail for an instant and I thought I was going to slam straight into the boulder and roll down the hill. I hit ground a few feet from disaster and thought for sure I was going to get hurt. Then my bike some how turned and I cruised down the rest of the hill. The rest was bumpy and full of rocks. I had to swerve around objects that were in the way as I went, and ended up practically moguling on a bike. After a fun ride we came back safe and sound. We got wet, muddy, and bloody on the trail so I think it would be considered a successful first ride for me!
