I've been mountain biking seriously for about 3 years now. I started when my husband, a golf fanatic, was gone with his friends on the links like he is every night. My best friend, Martha, has been an avid rider for years and had constantly asked me to join her. One night I agreed to go with her, and the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, on that fateful night 3 years ago I rolled my Diamonback Sorento out of the garage (I've long since upgraded to a Specialized) and rode to Martha's house. Luckily here in Wyoming where we live I have a canyon right behind my house. We road up the canyon on the dirt road and then left the road on a logging trail. She was trying to keep the ride simple so as not to discourage me, so we followed the logging trail for about twenty minutes when we rounded a corner and saw something that stopped us dead in the middle of the road: a local high school couple, who I happened to know (I teach high school) were in the middle of the road on a fourwheeler. Now I know that's not too unusual, but the girl was lying full-length on the fourwheeler, pants no where in sight, and the boy was lying halfway on the fourwheeler, and his head was no where in sight. As we were on bikes, our quiet approach had not alerted them to our presence. They didn't hear us until we rounded the corner. While we continued to ride rights past them as if they weren't there, they frantically pulled on clothing while ducking and trying to start the fourwheeler. That was my first mountain bike ride, and ironically, I've seen something similar since. It must be the extreme lack of people in Wyoming that makes couples so willing to get friendly in the great outdoors, but that's another story. Anyway, I haven't quit mountain biking since. Martha and I have continued to have great rides all the way from Wyoming to Utah to Idaho to Arizona while my husband continues to golf: this arrangement works well for both of us. He golfs with Martha's husband Jeff and I ride with Martha. Since I started biking when I was 23, I hope to have many such rides ahead of me, but I hope never to see some of my students naked and getting it on in the national forest again. It makes for awkward moments on Monday morning!
