mountain biking is to hiking as...

...skiing is to snowshoeing.  I don't like to snowshoe.  The reason why I don't like to snowshoe is because I am a pretty good skier.  On skis, I can get further out than I can on snowshoes and then I can get down much faster.  Not to mention, the getting down is the fun part when on tele skis.  Going downhill in snowshoes?  Not the case.  I do like to hike - at least for the time being - though the mountain bike has threatened that.

Eric got a mountain bike for his birthday this year (an early birthday present - his birthday isn't until late April).  In all honestly, I have never had any desire to try mountain biking.  He's been talking about it for ages and has been unable to get me excited about it.  Well, all that changed when I took the bike for a test spin last weekend.  It's amazing how easy it was to climb the hill...and then coming down was exhilarating! Lucky for me, we are about the same size and thus, use the same size bicycle. I went on a "real" ride this morning and fell in love with moving fast in the mountains.  I spent lots of time walking the bike up the steep parts but had an amazing ride down.  I was covered in mud and fell 3 times but managed to come back in one piece.  Now I am sore all over.  I love that feeling.

My question of the day - is 34 too old to start a new sport like this?  I am honestly afraid I might really hurt myself on the thing...and recovery is slow these days.  One thing I learned not to do was to take photos while riding.  Nope, not a good idea.