Today was my DH MTB day….and it was amazing. I’ll take you back to last night. My travel adventure was pretty adventurous to say the least.

It started in Phoenix. My flight was pretty late, getting into OC at 9:45pm. It was gonna be close with the rental car places being closed. Of course, my flight was delayed 50 minutes. Get into OC and…yup, the company I reserved my rental car with, was closed. Crap. Checked two places that were open, no cars. Checked the last place that was open, and they had an economy car that I was wanting. Next was the drive to my hotel about an hour away. I went cheap on hotel, and it was sketchy. I was rolling in around 1 am, and I wasn’t feeling too safe. I get in to check in, speak to the worker through the bullet proof glass….always a great sign, and he can’t find my reservation. Come to find out, Expedia messed up reservation and it was for June 8. Luckily they had 1 room left and the guy was cool about it. God is amazing!!! I was stressing out all night and getting frustrated…and…God provided and it all worked out. Uuuhhhgggg!!!! Why do I waste energy getting worried and stressed. The Bible even says that worrying is a sin. I got in bed around 1:30am and I was hopping I would get some super hero sleep, because my Dad was meeting at my hotel at 7am. I normally struggle with prayer at night because my mind is going fast. I really thanked God for taking care of me all night and prayed that I would get rest and not be tired in the morning. It was actually a really special moment for me. My Dad texted me at 6am and he was almost there. I felt sooooooo rested when I got up. It was amazing. It’s the most wild thing when you can see and feel your prayers answered. God is GREAT!!!

My Dad had a cooler with waters and snacks, so we loaded up in my car and we were off. The drive up the mountain was awesome. Took about an hour to get to Big Bear.

We got to the resort and the rental shop was putting all the bikes out. We talked to them a little and checked out the bikes. We wanted the full DH bike. The guys were super nice and really helpful. They set up the suspension for our weights and got the bikes all dialed.

Next we were gearing up and walking to the chair lift. I was super excited and ready to just rip. My Dad was excited, but pretty nervous. He hasn’t ridden a mtb for a few years, and he hasn’t really rode them very much all together. He’s also 55 years old, so he wasn’t sure how he would do, and also how sore he would get.

We are up on the chair and headed up. The views were beautiful from the chair and we could see berms everywhere and see some of the trails. Oh yeah….I was stoked !!!!

We were ready to rock. Our first run was sweet. I felt awesome on the bike and comfortable right away. I was hitting all the jumps first run and cranking out a little style. My Dad was going good too, and we both had major smiles on our faces after that first run. Second run wasn’t quite as smooth. I’m really used to riding narrow ridges with a drop on the edge of the trail. A lot of our trails at home are like that. My Dad….not so much. Haha. I could tell he wasn’t too comfortable on those sections. We were going through a fast ridge section, I was full speed, but I just sensed he wasn’t comfortable. I heard a “whooooo” and looked back. He was headed off the trail and down the side. It wasn’t a drop, it was just a steep hill. I thought he would ride it out no problem, but when I looked back again, I saw his feet over his head…he was going down. Thankfully he was ok and it wasn’t too bad of a crash. Later down the trail I got a little wild and washed out in a turn. We both got our only crashes out in our second run.

We did a handful more runs and did all the trails they have. They had about 6 different ways you could get down. They were all cool. We grabbed some lunch, then rode more. My Dad’s hands were pretty sore, so I did 3 solo runs at the end to finish off. It was awesome. I felt great on the bike and was really enjoying the trails. I was cranking moto style whips and Bmx style table tops on the jumps, but my last run I got a little wild. It’s been 2 years since I’ve done a NAC NAC on a Bmx bike, but I said screw it. Busted 2 clean NAC NACS on my last run. They weren’t super huge, but they felt good and had a little style in them 🙂

We were done and headed back down the hill. Man….what a great day. It was good to spend time with my Dad and it was just a great day for us. I would say one of my best memories with my Dad. Can’t wait to do it again. He’s all pumped on it and wants for us to do it again, I’m looking forward to it.

After we got down out of the mountain, I dropped him off and headed back to OC to drop off my rental car. Joe picked me up, and we drove back the same direction I just came from to get to Banning for The Duel. Check back tomorrow to see how The Duel goes at Proline. Thanks for reading and God Bless.