the Aussie Diaries: April 17th, 2014

Originally posted on muddbunnies.com

Thank you for photo usage: Berglind Hafsteinsdottir & Gina Hopper

I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before, but for all that I love to talk (and I can talk for hours) writing actually terrifies me, so every time I manage to complete one of these posts it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to actually manage to make the jumble of words in my head come out in the right order on the page, well mostly!  Anyway, back to the regular program.

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I've decided to make more of an effort this year to get out and ride with a whole bunch of different people.  I know I get to do that on Muddbunnies rides, but I'm talking about in general.  I find every new person you ride with has a different idea of what a fun loop will be or a different outlook on a trail that you personally might be like... Oh this trail again... so it's been a lot of fun.   It's also given me the opportunity to meet a few of the other girls on the Muddbunnies Race Team as we have headed out for a few adventures.

2014 is also my second year as an NSMBA Trail Adoption Program (TAP) Builder, and this year I am super excited as I get to work with the Muddbunnies.  This year the Muddbunnies and Ryders Eyewear said farewell to Team Pangor and moved over to Dale's Trail.  Dale's last saw work in 2011 when it was adopted by nsmb.com  Since then the new After Dale's trail (Also called Forever After) was built with access directly from Dale's.  I find it interesting as Dale's is a solid black diamond trail that is naturally rough and rugged whereas the new trail was built to give a good blue square intermediate trail option on Seymour Mountain.

This has caused Dale's to see a lot of traffic and left the trail in a pretty poor condition.  We have a lot of work ahead of us to bring this trail back to life, but as the Bunnies have displayed with Pangor, we work hard and "get 'er done"!  My first trail day had a total of 13 Bunnies and friends come out, and it was a glorious day.  We shuttled to the bottom of the trail (yes, North Shore 4x4ing woohoo!) and hiked up to begin work on the lowest muddy section.  You can read more about our first trail day here and find out about what my plans are for the trail here: Dale's Trail Assessment

I have also had the honor this year of being asked to be an official "ambassador" for the Muddbunnies, and as a long time advocate of women in mountain biking it is something I am genuinely stoked to do.  What does that actually mean though, well to me it means I just keep doing what I always do, help organise the Bunnies, lead rides, build trails,encourage and teach good biking skills and etiquette and generally share the love I have of all things bike with everyone around me.  I also want to give a not so subtle plug to Cap's the Original and Specialized Canada for Sponsoring us for 2014.

Now I better go pack for Easter...