Mountain Biking Back In Time

Lynne (twin sister) and I went to West Virginia last weekend to check in on our parents, specifically our mother, who is dealing with a lower back fracture.

While there, I was able to get a workout in on my mountain bike. Riding entirely on the family property, I was able to climb, descend, hit some single track, make some tight turns, and visit a lot of spots important to my childhood…and my adulthood.

Dad, who at 75 is discovering the out and about ridges and valleys of the area on the new West Virginia State Car, the four-wheeler, built himself a little trail. Its short (I’m sure there are plans to make it longer), maybe a quarter of a mile, but its narrow, has some steepish ups and downs, and is very smooth. If there were trails that smooth in the Pandapas Pond area, they would draw thousands of casual riders year-round. Just sayin.

So, I would ride out the smooth trail, down two small, but semi-steep hills, around the sharp curve at the bottom of the second one, do a tight turnaround, climb up the steep hills and head back out the trail.

 

Next I would zoom down the hill towards my grandparent’s house, now a rental house, but really, The House That Built Me.

There were many Wednesday afternoons, Saturday nights and Sundays (anytime my grandfather wasn’t at work) spent there learning to do all the things 6 year old girls (or boys) should learn how to do – ride a horse, drive a car, shoot a gun, play basketball, football and baseball (nothing teaches you to shoot, throw or hit straight like a ball going over the side of the mountain, sometimes lost forever, if you mess up), ride bikes and motorbikes, climb a mountain or a tree, build things, learn to play the banjo and cards…we did it all when we were with our grandfather…in and around that house. 

I rode out past the house into the lot, now an open area, where we kept our horses and where the barn used to be. I rode up the hill beside the house where we used to sled – on good ice you could go down that hill and out the road a half mile before having to stop. Sometimes you could go around the curve on one runner you were going so fast…and if you didn’t make the curve chances were you would end up over the mountain and on the road about 100 yards below. 

I rode out the paved road to the “turn around place.”  That’s the spot our grandfather teaching us to drive, would let us take the car a half-mile out the narrow road to, turn around, and drive back to his house. We were six years old when we learned to drive out that road. By the time we got our license, we could drive anywhere…and with my jeep, I pretty much still can! 

From the “turn around place,” I would ride back towards the house, then take the steep, but paved road up to my parents’ house, and start the loop all over again. 

The loop itself didn’t take long, but it was quite the workout, and with all the memories along the way, the ride seemed to last forever!