Honestly, riding at these speeds, its quite difficult to soak in your surroundings.
In this sport, when your wheels are are at a 20 degree angle and you‘re face first pumping it nothing else matters. Its an equilibrium of man, machine and nature.
Every individual rides for a different purpose - sometimes the purpose of the individual IS to ride.
In essence all we are doing is traveling from point A to point B.
Nothing can block your path going down. Ride over. Ride through. The obstacles that stand in out way transform simply into a guide on our way down - Brake here, release there, shift your weight, change your gear.
Invincible.
Rocks, roots, trees, jumps, bigger rocks and bigger jumps.
Invincible.
Try to explain the feeling you get when you‘re on a trail to someone and the reactions you‘ll get (as you probably know by now) will only fuel your passion for the next run. The specifics don‘t matter. Downhill, Cross Country, All-Mountain or Free-ride - all answer the basic criteria of an ideal that pushes all of us to the limit.
In it‘s purest form, when you take away all the peripherals, when you strip it down to its bare elements - all we are doing is fulfilling one of man kinds raw cravings :
Feeling alive!
Those perfect runs, smooth drop-offs and break-neck speeds.
"Its great to be alive!"
Its easy to forget how you got there. No, not the jeep.
I remember the first time I rode with out my training wheels - Freedom!
Look where I am now!
When bruises and cuts turn from flesh wounds to battle scars you are already counting down the days
till your next MTB adventure!
Some people walk.
Some people jog.
Some people run.
We ride hard, we ride fast.