With Ryan out of town visiting family and Poolboy Matt off work for Christmas, we decided to make a quick pre-Christmas trip to Syllamo. Rather than the usual trail riding, I convinced Matt to join me in exploring a couple of off-trail paths that looked as if they were once “roads.” During the course of both Saturday and Sunday rides, we ended up pushing our bikes for slightly upwards of 20 minutes in order to navigate steep, overgrown, and/or deadfall-covered terrain. Matt (bless his heart) did his best to stay positive, but I could tell that he wanted to stab me in the neck with a chainring.

This brings me to my main point of this post- why are so many people so bothered by hike-a-bike???

It seems like most riders (I’ve heard it from everyone- average joe to all-out pro) hate traversing/climbing/pushing/carrying over less ride-able terrain. Why? Short of things like yellow jackets, wasps, and belligerent motorists, I can’t wrap my head around the concept of hating anything during a mountain bike outing.

In less than 1 minute, I came up with this list of 10 things worse than hike-a-bike:
– Root canal
-Rush hour traffic with lots of angry commuters
-Being late to anything
-Overcooking a really nice cut of meat
-Air conditioner out of order in the Summer
– Running out of anything important on Christmas day and all of the stores are closed
-Desk Jobs
-Homelessness
-Fast Food
– Listening to people argue politics

See? You could be experiencing any one of those things (among others), but instead, you’re out in the woods with your bike. How can that possibly be bad? (unless yellow jackets or wasps are involved) It’s like listening to road racers complain about wind or a hill or something… it’s just a “thing” that comes with the territory. Embrace it.