We hit the ridge of Blue Dot signaling the “end” of the climbing. The climb is a stiff one over sandstone and as direct of a route up as possible. If it was on dirt, you wouldn’t be able to climb it. Those of you who have ridden it know. You also know that getting to the top of the climb isn’t the hard part of this trail, the obstacles and extreme exposure are just about to start.
The first move the Alliance has dubbed Cacao.
There are reasons.
This particular move has either been sanitized or we have become much better bike riders over the years. The first girls trip we did a few years ago, this was a walk down and look at spot with talk of not even trying it. Of course, these ladies kick ass and all rode it lickity split. It looks something like this.
This year it wasn’t even a look at it move and all three ladies just bombed it like it was a country we needed oil from.
At the bottom of said move, a group of dudes had congregated. Based on their demeanor it was clear that Cacao had been yelled and they said, “Fuck it, we’re walking that shit.” Which is not a problem. As I have laid out in the past, these ladies don’t look down on others, it’s one of the reasons it’s fun to ride with them. Unfortunately, not only were these dudes poor riders, they were miffed that a “girl” could ride what they had not. One of them had to comment that he felt like a wimp because he had just been shown up by a woman.
Of course, he wasn’t a wimp for not riding the line. Everyone has their own headspace, trail vision and skills. Some things make sense to some of us while other things don’t. It is ok to not ride an obstacle. It is not, however, ok to feel threatened or place a quality of “the weaker sex” when someone else can clean what you did not. If you ever feel yourself slipping into that territory, repeat after me, “Only weak men are scared of strong women.”
If the first step in solving a problem is identifying it, as men we need to take a step back and recognize that we have done a horrible job, absolutely fucking horrible. Men have more or less been in charge for as long as anyone can seem to remember and look where we are. We have waged wars, genocide, destroyed beauty, tried to control, manipulate and essentially do anything that will keep us in that position. It’s time we step down or have that power taken from us.
This past election, 118 women were either elected or re-elected to Congress. If you are a man and have a problem with that, repeat after me, “Only weak men are scared of strong women.”
When KB and I started dating (read that as started riding together), she was pretty new to mountain biking. The thing that impressed me most with riding with her, was her ability to hold her shit together even when things didn’t go her way. And she was willing to always push her boundaries, to learn that little something that would help her make it to the next level.
Since then, she has continuously improved and there have been several leaps forward in her riding that have happened over the course of the past decade.
One of my favorite trails in Moab is Portal. And before you ask, no, I don’t ride the stupid move with crazy consequence. It’s just not worth it. Everything else is what I love about that trail. The exposure at the top makes me hyper-focused and gives just the right of adrenaline leading into the rock garden that is the descent back to the canyon floor.
This past trip, I rounded the turn and as is my custom, I let gravity accelerate me downward controlling my speed, but more or less letting it rip. Once I hit and rode through a couple of rock garden sections with ghunarly switchbacks, the trail opened back up to a smoother section and I applied the brakes and came to a stop. Typically, this is where I wait for a few minutes to make sure everyone is ok and then repeat the process. This last trip. I stopped, giggling to myself and turned to see where everyone was at. KB was right behind me.
We repeated this process and despite my best efforts, I was unable to drop her on the descent. And as I started to feel a little threatened by the fact that my wife was catching me in bike riding skill, I smiled to myself and repeated, “Only weak men are scared of strong women.”
P. L. and R.
