Mountain Biking - Amelia Earhart Park - Hialeah

Mountain biking attempt number two. If you remember from my last posting on the subject, I was just starting out on the intermediate trail when my bike suffered a catastrophic failure. With some glue, bolts and eight inches of galvanized water pipe, I made a very ill advised repair. Before I plunk down some serious cash for this sport I thought I would see if I even care for it. Ok, let's be honest. I want to see if I can even survive the bunny hills. For today's adventure a new venue. Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah.

I may be a total novice but my partner for the day is not. Nor, does it seem, the 30-40 riders all getting ready for an early start to the day when we arrived. My friend was describing how the trail starts off easy and gets progressively more difficult when we were informed by another rider the entire course has been reversed. Better to test my sketchy repair work close to the car I'm thinking.

We plunge right in on the beginner trail. Not bad. A little rough. Five minutes later we are dodging trees, climbing hills, and taking hair pin turns in the sand. Hey, this is the intermediate trail. Did I miss the sign? Not much of a warmup I'm thinking.  It was about all I could do to keep up when I was confronted with a ten foot climb. I could not switch gears fast enough and stopped dead as my front wheel cleared the top. With a few encouraging words and suddenly locating some inner strength I was up and over again and again hill after hill. Tremendously exciting and dangerous enough to command my full attention.

Dog tired and almost to the end

We rounded a corner and I realized I was playing follow the leader right onto the Advanced Course. "Are you serious ?!?!" I called out.
The answer was I was doing just fine. Maybe I was not making clear I was already percentage points past my limit. I did not clear the first or second hill but another burst of determination kicked in and I was up and over the third. The way down was practically vertical from my point of view. At one moment I was certain the back wheel was going over my head. A little too much for day one. I was forced to bypass the worst of it while my riding partner zipped around the course like a bumble bee.

There are plenty of twists and turns and very challenging terrain on the advanced course that I will tackle next time. I promise. For right now, I was happy to walk away. My bike is about on its last pedal and I will need to upgrade to something that can run this course. Upgrading me is another matter but I am determined conquer the advanced course at Amelia.

Mountain Biking - Oleta River State Park - North Miami

I have owned a Mongoose Mountain Bike for years but have never really taken it off road. A typical weekend ride for me is about 20 miles. I like that my bike rides heavy on the road. Much better workout. I heard about Oleta River State Park from a friend and decided to give it a try. This is South Florida right. No mountains, no hills, no curves in the road. How hard can it be.

Oh boy!!! Big surprise. I started off with the beginner trail and found out what a beginner I was. The hills were what I expected. Dirt pushed up here and there. It was the rocks, roots, branches, and closeness of the trees I didn't really think about. Jumping logs and running across little wooden bridges keep my attention focused like a laser. I put my new helmet to good use more than once. The trails are pretty well marked and not all that crowded when I was there. That is to say no one ran me over. It is quite amazing to be right in the middle of a busy city and yet totally immersed in nature. After about 20 minutes on the novice trail, I gave the intermediate trail a go. I approached a steep hill and didn't quite give it enough gas to make it over. The incline was enough to make my brakes useless and I came down backwards pretty quick. In all fairness my bike has never stopped going backwards before and if the rear brake had managed to grip, I would have rolled the bike. Not to be deterred, I got some distance from the hill and a good amount of speed and was up and over. I was pretty shocked when the seat on my bike snapped right off. I was not too badly hurt but I have to say I am not to impressed with Mongoose right now.

The conclusion of my first experience at Oleta is that it is far from my last. Of course I need a new bike but wow, what a rush. I barely even scratched the surface of the trails and some of the advanced trails are terrifying. One had a set of stairs. Not sure if you were supposed to carry your bike up or ride down them. All I know is I want to try again and soon.