Welcome to The Type 2 Traveler’s guide files. I believe guides are unsung heroes. They’re perpetual students and teachers. When I go through my digital rolodex, these are the people who have shepherded me through the outdoors over the years. Whether you’re looking for a backcountry ski guide or someone to lead you on a hike in Hawaii, these are the folks to call.
I love road cycling, beach cruiser riding, gravel biking…but mountain biking always intimidated me. The tight turns. The rocky, root riddled terrain. The drop seat. It all sounded like a recipe for injury. But the very fact that it scared me was all the more reason to try it. Unfortunately, my first mountain bike experience was not on beginner-friendly terrain. It was in Verbier, Switzerland where our instructor left us at the top of the mountain with no instructions except, go down. Carnage ensued. I was one of the casualties. Not realizing the bike breaks are on opposite sides in Europe I launched over my handlebars and fractured my hand.
With that memory lodged in my head, it took a few years before I got back in the saddle. And when I did, I was extremely timid. But I was determined to improve. I signed up for a one-on-one mountain bike clinic with VNTRbirds, a women-run and women-focused adventure company in Colorado founded by sisters Kelley and Leanne Wren. The lightbulb clicked. I learned how to use the drop seat properly and position my body in the attack position. My coach had me session features like rocks and stumps to help me trust the bike’s ability to get over them. By the end of the day, I was picking my own lines down the mountain.
Earlier this year, my adventurous mother informed me she’d like to get into mountain biking…at age 69. Last month, we took a mother-daughter trip to Breckenridge, and I booked us a clinic with VNTRbirds and they paired us with coach Jen Kates. Jen is a bad ass. She was competing in SBT GRVL, a world-class gravel bike race held in Steamboat Springs, the very next day. She was funny, knowledgeable, supportive, and boosted not just our skills but our confidence. Here, she talks about the electric energy of an all-women’s mountain bike clinic, the power of positive talk and mindset, and why every rider should know the ABCs of bike safety.
“I tell my clients if you say, ‘I’m sorry’ you have to turn around and say, ‘I’m sexy.”
How did you personally get hooked on mountain biking?
“An ex in college introduced me to it. I went to school in North Carolina and she was a mountain bike instructor. This was back in 2000 or so and I had a really old bike from the 90s. The first time I met her to ride she took one look at my bike and was like, ‘let me make sure your brakes even work.’ I survived that fist ride by the skin of my teeth. Then she took me on an easier trail with little whoopty doos and that feeling of wind in my hair—of course I had a helmet on—and hearing the tires on the dirt just hooked me.”
