SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE F3
But something happened to
my riding skills as I aged, and
especially after I became a moth-
er. I slowed down. My nerves
kicked in, and previously inviting
trails seemed full of hazards. At
first, I mourned the loss of the
mountain biker I once was, then I
accepted the change, assuming
that my endorphin-producing
mountain biking days were be-
hind me.
Then, in 2018, my husband
suggested we take a family lesson
at Trestle Bike Park in Winter
Park. He was curious about the
bike park phenomenon and
thought this would be a good way
to introduce our boys to moun-
tain biking, because my attempts
at taking them on long cross-
country rides had more or less
ended in tears every time (mostly
from them).
We rented bikes with big,
squishy front and back shocks,donned loaner pads and bobble-
headed helmets, and hopped into
a gondola with a patient instruc-
tor named Jake. It took us three
hours to descend the five-mile
green run from the top of the
mountain to the base — an ex-
traordinarily long time mandat-
ed by the pace of our youngest
child. I was certain they’d be
bored and frustrated at the bot-
tom, but to my delight, when we
got to the resort base, the kids
begged to ride up and do it again.
In the intervening years, we
have paid for lessons and coach-
ing for the kids and have ridden
as a family for countless hours in
the summer. At first, I simply
appreciated my sons’ progres-
sion. Although their personal-
ities are very different — one is
laid-back, the other a ball of
fearless energy — both began to
prefer more challenging trails
that they eagerly shared with us.Over time, their progress on the
bike also became my own. It
happened so naturally that I
wasn’t even aware of it until last
summer, on that fast ride down
Paper Boy.
In the flow of the chase, as my
sons pulled away from me in a
clearing and had their own joyful
ride down, I stopped worrying. It
wasn’t that I let go of fear, it’s just
that fear was not part of the
calculus. I was simply riding my
bike with the same love I’d
brought to the sport 30 years
earlier when I got my first moun-
tain bike. In the three decades
since, riding had been how I
made friends, explored new plac-
es and became surer of myself —
athletically and emotionally.
Becoming a mother nearly
ended that part of me, but down-
hill mountain biking, which I
never would have explored with-
out motherhood, brought my rid-
ing full circle. By introducing my
children to downhill mountain
biking, I had inadvertently
spawned their love of the sport
and, in turn, reignited my own.
These days, I am back to riding
not like a mother, but like myself.
I tried to explain this to the
boys over bottles of root beer
after that terrific August day, but
they weren’t having it. They
aren’t old enough for soul-search-
ing or nostalgia. To them, riding
bikes is throwing a leg over the
saddle and pointing downhill.
Having recaptured my love for
speed and even a little air, I’m
right there with them.Walker is a writer based in Boulder,
Colo. Find her on Twitter:
@racheljowalker.If You Go
WHERE TO STAY
Zephyr Mountain Lodge
201 Zephyr Way, Winter Park,
Colo.
970-722-0707
bit.ly/zephyr-mountain-lodge
Located near the Winter Park
Resort gondola, Zephyr Mountain
Lodge offers ride-in/ride-out one-,
two- and three-bedroom condos.
Condos from about $219 per
night.
Gravity Haus Winter Park
78869 Hwy. 40
970-557-2340
gravityhaus.com
Located in downtown Winter Park,
this dog-friendly boutique motel
has 38 rooms, a gear “library”
where patrons can rent
equipment, and a co-working
space. Rates from $159 per
night.WHAT TO EAT
Durbar Nepalese and Indian
Bistro
47 Cooper Creek Way #222
970-363- 7081
durbarbistro.com/winterpark
Authentic Indian and Nepalese
food with vegan, seafood and
meat offerings. Open Tuesday to
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and
4:30 to 9 p.m. Entrees from
$14.50.
Pizza Pedal’r
125 Parry Peak Way
970-726-5944
pizzapedalr.com
A popular family-owned pizza joint
at the base of Winter Park Resort.
Open daily noon to 3 p.m. and 4
to 7 p.m. Small pizza $10.95.
Big Trout Brewing
50 Vasquez Rd.
970-363- 7362
bigtroutbrewing.com
A locally owned craft beer
brewpub with a satisfying menu of
salads, soups, sandwiches, pizzas
and appetizers. Open Thursday to
Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.;
closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
Entrees from $8.WHAT TO DO
Trestle Bike Park
85 Parsenn Rd.
970-726-5514
trestlebikepark.com
Winter Park Resort’s downhill
mountain bike park offers a
variety of trails for all levels. A
summer riding school holds
private and group lessons, and
shops offer rental gear, including
bikes, helmets and pads. Bike
rentals, as well as day and season
passes, are available.INFORMATION
playwinterpark.comBY RACHEL WALKERIt’s August in Colorado, and
I’m chasing my sons, ages 9 and
11, down Paper Boy, a fast, banked
dirt trail at Winter Park’s Trestle
Bike Park. They’re way ahead of
me as I lean into one of the final
turns. The trail angles down-
ward, then shoots up, and mo-
mentum carries me up a pitch so
steep that I would never be able
to pedal it on my own. That same
speed pops me off the ramp at the
top. I stand on my pedals in the
air, land with both wheels on the
ground and veer left, exhilarated.
In this innocuous game of
chase, I’m riding more fearlessly
than I have all summer, and I feel
like a kid myself. I’m not really
thinking, just flowing along with
my bike as the trail undulates and
crosses a road before heading
through a thicket. Into the trees I
go, then over a shallow creek. For
a brief moment, all is sublime:
the slant of the sun’s rays through
the pine boughs, the promise of
the skinny trail. Then I emerge
into what feels like a party, a line
of 20 or so people at the bottom of
Olympia Lift. Bass pumps from a
large speaker, and all around me
riders who look like comic book
characters — they’re wearing full-
face helmets and have gladiator-
like pads on their chests, backs,
elbows and knees — wait in the
lift line with their bikes for their
turn to ride a chair. The air is
alive with laughter and glee;
everyone, myself included, seems
to be riding an adrenaline rush of
their own.
This is downhill mountain bik-
ing. Also known as lift-served or
gravity-assisted mountain bik-
ing, this mode of riding differs
from cross-country in one key
regard: Instead of pedaling to the
top of a mountain — or uphill at
all — downhill mountain bikers
ride lifts or gondolas to the top,
then let gravity do its thing on the
way down.
Downhill mountain bike parks
are usually located at ski resorts,
a seasonal solution to monetizing
the ski resort infrastructure out-
side of winter. Like their winter
counterparts, the parks are
staffed with trail builders and
patrollers as well as instructors
and coaches. There are parks at
resorts all over the country — and
the world.
In the Lower 48, some of the
most popular parks can be found
at California’s Mammoth Moun-
tain, Colorado’s Keystone Resort,
New Mexico’s Angel Fire and New
Hampshire’s Highland Mountain
Bike Park. Other downhill bike
parks are rapidly developing and
building more trails each year.
Still others are low-key and offer
friendly introductions to the
sport. Given the proliferation of
mountain bike parks in the past
two decades, chances are that a
ski resort near you either offers
summer lift-served biking or is in
the process of doing so.
Riding at the parks costs mon-
ey, with day passes tending to
range from about $40 to $70.
Like ski resorts, mountain bike
parks also sell season passes,
which can make economic sense
depending on how many days
you expect to ride.
The appeal of gravity-assisted
riding extends beyond the fact
that it spares riders the aerobic,
lung-pounding climb to the top.
In downhill riding, cyclists have
vast choices. They can choose
from flowing, freestyle trails or
technical ones with jumps, raised
bridges and other constructed
features. These trails come with
plenty of options, so riders can
try to clear a tabletop jump or go
around it. Bike parks also allow
for repetition, which can lead to a
faster learning curve: Riding the
same trail repeatedly allows us-
ers to anticipate and prepare for
challenges. And there is an evi-
dent progression. Like winter ski
trails, mountain bike park trails
are ranked on a green (easy), blue
(intermediate) and black (expert)
system.
Another bonus: Skills devel-
oped in the bike park translate to
cross-country trail riding. I fig-
ured this out last summer when I
took my boys on more traditional
rides and watched with delight as
they playfully descended trails
that we rode uphill to access.
It took me years to warm up to
bike parks. In the early 2000 s, I
was an avid cross-country moun-
tain biker living in Bend, Ore.,
and my friends would invite me
to travel north with them to
Whistler, B.C., to that resort’s
mountain bike park. At the time,
I couldn’t fathom why anyone
would forgo a three-hour ride in
the backcountry, up and down
mountains — or, in the case of
Oregon, around volcanoes — just
to suit up in full body armor and
fling themselves off raised bridg-
es, gap jumps and massive drops.
Like some purists today, I even
ridiculed the activity as “cheat-
ing,” as if there is a set of rules
people must adhere to if they
wish to properly ride a bike.
At a downhill mountain bike park, a love of riding rekindled
BUSINESS WIRE/ASSOCIATED PRESSRACHEL WALKER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST RACHEL WALKER FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTRACHEL WALKER FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTAngel Fire Resort in
New Mexico, top, is a
popular park in the
Lower 48 for downhill
mountain biking, a
seasonal solution for ski
resorts to monetize
infrastructure outside of
winter. The author, with
the help of her 9- and 11 -
year-old sons, above and
right, has rediscovered
the same love she had
for mountain biking
when she started riding
30 years ago.