Biking
I have always been an avid cyclist. As a kid I rode my bike everywhere I went. During high school I was so into biking that I felt that cars were unnecessary. Once in a while I would ride my bike off road, go along a trail and then go back onto the main path. In 2011, when I did my internship in Pocatello Idaho; I had the opportunity to ride the City Creek Trails. That was the first time I was exposed to mountain biking. I was not taught how to ride, at least not formally, but I had fun and got lots of exercise!
Farragut State Park
After college I rode my bike in a lot of places. My first big post-college ride was Farragut State park in Idaho. I went there regularly but found the fuel to be expensive. Needless to say, I still rode regularly. When I wasn't mountain/trail riding I was riding on the Centennial Trail in Coeur d' Alene Idaho. Farragut was my one go-to for mountain biking.
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Salteese Uplands
While Farragut was fun, I wanted to find another place to ride, something more local. After doing a search on Google I found the Salteese uplands. The unique thing about Salteese is that it has a long up-hill and a long but fun down-hill. Farragut was up and down. I still ride at the Salteese uplands regularly, although now I have had some additional training, and my speed is significantly faster than when I first started. The video is of my latest ride on the Salteese uplands.
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Camp Sekani (Beacon Hill) - Stalingrab
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I discovered beacon hill, close to where I live. During my first ride there I simply scouted it out. The turns and trails seemed to be too advanced for my skill level. Then in the summer of 2019 while I was a leader of a church youth group, one of the youth in the group showed us the Beacon hill area. We went down a trail called Stalingrab, it was a blast. The first time I went down that trail was in June. When I first went down, I rode it like I rode anything else, with my seat all the way up and me sitting down. This is when I started to learn proper mountain biking techniques including dropping my seat and moving around the bike on the way down. One year later I bought a new mountain bike. I still ride my old Trek 3500, but only on family rides. I now ride my new Raleigh Tokul on all my mountain biking adventures.
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Camp Sekani (Beacon Hill) - Rabid Rabbit
Rabid rabbit was another trail I decided to try in Camp Sakani Park. While Stalingrab has jumps and large swooping turns; Rabid rabbit is defined by few jumps but extremely tight turns. I enjoy Rabid rabbit just a little more than Stalingrab, the tight turns are a lot of fun but they require fast reflexes.
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Iller Creek
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Iller creek is another fun trail I discovered in the Spokane Washington area. Its a much longer trail then Beacon hill. It has a very long up-hill section followed by a flowy downhill. The one challenge with Iller creek is it is a hiking trail so I need to be cautious about speed and always keep my eyes open for hikers. Its a lot of fun! But so far I have only been once.
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