We thought we’d try mountain biking. I mean, we’re surrounded by mountains. We want to get ourselves a pair of bikes sometime soon, so why not try biking in the mountains?

BYU advertised a guided mountain biking excursion for full-time employees, so we did it. Boy, did we do it.

It was awesome in parts, exhausting in others, and a little scary now and again. But overall really fun. There were eight bikers in our group plus three expert guides. They drove us in a van 1/2 hour south, way up into the mountains near Payson, just north of Payson Lakes. Gorgeous country up there. I wish I had a camera in parts, because the mountains and meadows and birch trees and valley views were so amazing!

We saw a whole lot of trail riders (and none of them wearing helmets! I mentioned this to John in a worried voice, especially because there were a lot of kids riding, and he said, “Well, it’s not required by law to wear a helmet riding a horse.” Obviously he and all those trail riders didn’t learn how to ride from my mom. At our house wearing a helmet when riding was like brushing your teeth before bed. When they get bucked off and end up in the hospital with a concussion they’ll wish they had been wearing a helmet, and I’ll silently thank my mom for teaching me better).

We did about three hours of biking overall, which was a sufficient taste of it. We were tired by the end! Like I said, parts of it were scenic and lovely. But most of it was downhill on a foot-wide dirt path, over rocks and logs and around 90- or 180-degree turns. Three people biffed it pretty good; one girl flipped over the front of her bike and chose to quit. All in all, John and I came out relatively unscathed. Just cuts and bruises and general soreness.

Our conclusion is that mountain biking is fun, but we might be more of the trail-riding variety of bikers. More gentle inclines and declines and not so many hairpin turns and steep dirt trails.

When we got back we were tired and dirty! Here’re my legs right after I took off my shoes. It looks like I’m wearing brown leggings, but that’s just dirt. You can sort of see some of the painful bruises on my shins.

Happy trails!