“If a trail requires that I wear a full-face helmet, then I probably shouldn’t be riding that trail,” said Shannon back in 2016 at Whistler.
Well guess what happened on Sunday? We spent the whole day riding the ski lift and cooking downhill on the bike park trails at Angel Fire. First time ever for either of us and it was a blast. We cheated death and got no injuries.
Shannon says “I was apprehensive but also very excited to try downhill, and when I finally did it, I loved it! Dirt Series let me take lead and I just rocked it. I’m so glad – it was so much fun!”
Another real cool thing about it is it’s all downhill – no pedaling uphill. Just a trail out ahead of you to focus on your skills. Riding banked corners down the hillside is the bomb!
We got free helmets too from the rental shop as they are replacing their older ones.
The whole Trek Dirt Series skills camp was great too. I felt a little self conscious about “crashing” this all-women’s camp, but they were all very accepting and were not bothered at all by my presence. (For those who don’t know, this was all planned to be Shannon’s volunteer gig and I was just along for the road trip. But Dirt Series ended up needing more volunteers and wanted my help in spite of my gender. So that’s how that all happened.)