Island Lake State Park: Bring on the MTB

Today, I finally popped my MTB cherry. It's about time. Since buying my Gary Fisher four years ago I have logged countless miles of pavement riding, using the front shocks to hop curbs, avoiding bumps and potholes whenever possible, and rarely if ever straying outside the road-bike-accessible realm.

To be honest, my reasons for not hitting the trails thus far have been around 10% lack of opportunity and 90% fear. I don't know if it's the X-games or just the hardcore MTB kids, but I'd placed the danger level of mountain biking on par with, say, bull riding. I'm sure if I tried I could find trails that would make Pamplona look tame, but I know I'm unlikely to encounter them in Michigan.

It didn't take long to dispel the myths of 20-foot drops and bike eating monsters. My friend recommended Island Lake State Park because it's a well-groomed singletrack trail that's fun at a lot of levels, but still easy for beginners. It's got lots of relatively smooth sections with lots of twists and turns that feel great to speed through, and of course included a taste of the "fun stuff" with a few sharp and rutted drops and making some decent climbs.

Even after spending the summer becoming a competent cyclist on the road, though, it turns out that most of my habits don't translate well to the trail. For example, despite knowing that my wide tires will get me through, my instinct is to brake when I ride off the pavement onto a soft shoulder. Of course, when you're going through piles of sand or down steep hills, tensing up and losing momentum is the last thing to do. It was hard to get comfortable with not being fully in control (especially when I don't have health insurance) and it's going to take some effort and practice before I really learn to power through the roots, ruts, and sand pits.

Of course, riding in Michigan in October you can hardly expect the weather to cooperate, and as soon as we arrived at the trailhead it started to sprinkle, and rained progressively harder throughout the ride. Now, I don't have a problem being wet, and I know that my bike would have picked up a decent amount of dirt in any weather, but after about five miles my drive train was making me cringe with horrible grinding noises. Mentally aussuaging fears over my personal safety suddenly seemed easy compared to talking myself through the bike damage ("it's okay, your bike is made for this, we'll clean it out when we get home, it's only a couple more miles, this is part of the experience"), and eventually my bike and I both pushed through.

All in all, I've definitely gotten over my aversion to the trail, and I can tell this is a sport that only gets more fun as you get better at it. My only regret is that I'm discovering this in October, in the middle of hunting season and with winter looming on the horizon. Still, it's better late than never, and in the next couple of weeks you can bet I'll be calling MTB back for a second date.