Mantua Trails

Brandon called this morning to tell me he gets the night off and to find a sitter so we could go ride our dirt bikes. I called my mom and she said she could tend for us so we can have a break... she's awesome! Yes, we need a break! And we bought our bikes 2 months ago and we haven't had the chance to ride them farther than the barn!

Mantua is really close to my mom's house... and it's beautiful! Brandon is unloading our bikes. I'm really excited to finally ride some trails today.

We headed up this road to see if it would lead to Avon. We got halfway up and there was a gate saying it was closed for another month. This trail was pretty rocky. 

Brandon gave me tip #1 - Don't look at the rocks right in front of you, just focus up ahead to where you want to go and you'll go right over the rocks no problem. If you focus on the ones in front of you, they'll stop you every time. 

I quickly learned how true that was... I looked ahead and went right over all of them! It seemed so easy. Some of them were kind of big, and naturally I'm the kind of gal that wants to swerve around all the big ones. I know it would've made me tip over if I did.

We came back down this one, and headed up the trails towards Ben Lomond Peak.

I was getting the hang of my bike pretty well. Lots of turns, blind corners, off-road more narrow trails, rocks, dips, and a few steep climbs. The first steep climb we came upon was right around a corner so I didn't see it coming in time to react. I couldn't down shift fast enough, so I made it halfway up then it died. I held the breaks to keep from rolling backward and tipped over into the bank. I wasn't hurt at all, but I was stuck! LOL. I can't coast backwards... it was way too steep for me, and too steep to push it up. I just waited for Brandon to come back and rescue me. :) I bent my shift lever when I tipped it over. We stopped for a break  at the top here and took a picture. Brandon tried to make me feel better and said when you crash is how you know whether you're riding hard or not, so he was proud. :)

The next 2 steep ones I was ready, and crawled right up them. I didn't have any trouble on the way back down either. We had so much fun!

The sun is almost gone. We loaded the bikes and went to pick up the kids from my mom's. I was pretty dirty eating Brandon's dust, but I wanted him to lead the way... I knew he wouldn't lead us in places I couldn't handle.

I can't wait to go again! It was an awesome date!

Jun 15, 2013