Mountain Bike for Her Issue 4 - Dec/Jan 2015 | Page 8

nervously anticipated our Kootenay trip.
We would spend a week in the
region, travelling and riding in Rossland,
Kimberly, Fernie, and Nelson. Our core
crew consisted of myself and another
media person, Ben, Kelli and Darren from
Endless Biking, Jason; who won the trip
in a contest, and Martin who organized
it all. In each location local guides would
showcase the best that their communities
have to offer from trails to beers – and
sometimes, handmade candy.
On our first morning, I was the last to
drop into the beautiful and flowy trails
that Rossland has to offer, but only after
asking for the tenth time “exactly how
much climbing is there to start?” Now
this might be where you are expecting to
read about how I overcame my doubts,
realized that I was in fact an amazing rider
who just had to believe in herself, and
the rest of the trip was nothing but hot
Mountain Bike for Her | P. 8

laps and high-fives, but that’s not what
happened. We had plenty of high-fives,
but they were more of an encouraging
nature than a celebratory one. In fact, by
the end of our first day riding it was clear
that I was much slower than the rest of
the group. Contingency plans were put in
place for the rest of the week as we had
an aggressive schedule to maintain and
I loath to be the person who everyone
is waiting for. As needed, we split the
group or I opted for earlier exits, usually
skipping that one last climb that would
really put hair on my chest.
In Kimberly, I picked through the
beautiful rocky terrain, in Fernie I peacedout before the last big climb (twice).
In Nelson, I struggled to the lookout,
arriving just after sunset. There were
times that I pushed, times that I walked,
and times that I took the alternate route.
My internal dialogue used words that