Mountain: Lea and the Kids

I am three feet tall, four years old, and still a wee bit wet behind the ears. I had a really good time at Pedros Fest. What makes my experience (as a four year old) different than that of others? Firstly, I just learned how to ride my bike. The old man just took my training wheels off the other day, and I am still a bit shaky. This whole balance thing is trickier than you big people make it out to be. But, c'est la vie, I crash, I eat a little mud, it doesn't taste all that bad. So, what makes this festival cool for me? I mean besides it earning me my stripes as a colloil connoisseur...

Well, there's a lot that makes it cool. But, for now, one of the main things that makes it cool is Lea Davison. Who's Lea Davison? She is a mountain bike racer with Team Trek Volkswagen. She's a NORBA U-23 national champion. She must be really fast. Don't tell my dad but, I think she's faster than he is and I doubt that she falls as much! Anyway, the people at Pedros brought her in to teach me and these other little guys how to ride a pump track.

I didn't even know what a pump track was until I came here. It's kinda neat, you pedal to get up to speed, then once you whip around that banked berm you hit these mogul type bumps. On these Lea told us that we didn't have to pedal, all we had to do is pump the handle bars and our momentum would carry us forward. She told us we could make it around the entire track that way, without even pedaling.

That's easy for her to say, she has legs that go up to the top of my helmet. I had to pedal but, I made it around. The track is sweet, I saw a bunch of big kids catching like 100 feet of air on it. Well, maybe not 100 feet but, they were super high up. Someday I am going to catch at least 100 feet though. I just have to keep practicing what Lea is teaching us. Oh yea, back to Lea... She also showed us how to cruise around the loop without sitting in the saddle. I hit one of those berms and fell over. She asked me if I was ok, I was fine, only fell about a foot. Then she pushed me to help me get over the next bump. She's fast even without her bike.

She taught us a few more tricks but mainly she was trying to help us tame one of our most ornery foes, gravity. Now, that we've got that down we're all going to ride our bikes out on some serious trails and tear it up! Well, ok, maybe we'll start with hopping the curb when we're trying to chase down Mr. Softee.