We are spending a few days in Crosby/Brainerd Minnesota this week, something we plan on continuing every August. It’s quite the trek up here, about 4.5 hours from our house or 2 hours North of the twin cities. We are having a blast! Last year Craig and I came by ourselves. We had a ton of fun on the mountain biking trails up here. This year, Craig has been training up Carver on the trails back home so he would be ready to tackle the Cuyuna trails.

Craig had some experience with the trails with a buddy in college and he introduced me to the sport in 2020. Other than that, we had NO idea how to mountain bike, what kind of bike we’d need, or any knowledge or skill of how to actually bike. It was a lot of trial, error, and youtube.

Last year, we booked a lesson with Derrick from Sure Shift while we were in town. We had so much fun! He was able to meet me at my VERY novice level while also making sure the lesson was worthwhile for Craig. Here are some pictures from last year’s lesson.

It gave me SO much confidence and I haven’t fallen since we had that lesson! More importantly, I learned things like HOW to fall and yes, there is a technique to falling! This year, we knew we would be bringing Carver and we wanted to make sure he had a solid foundation and skill set, unlike what we had. Derrick brought the ramps and set them up for Carver to work on.

Carver says, “I was working on ready position and neutral position and level pedals on the ramps.” Carver says his favorite part of taking lessons was working on level pedals on the ramp. Craig said in just a few minutes he looked like a real mountain biker.

Soon after the basic skills, Carver, Craig and Derrick hit the trails! They have loops and skills tracks right at the trail head. Craig and Derrick took off to work on jumps and more difficult areas while Carver spent a good hour on the basic skills loop. Carver has been begging to start a youtube channel of his mountain biking adventures, I told him we would maybe see if he’s still interested next Summer. He’s taking suggestions for a YouTube channel name in the meantime.

We look forward to booking another lesson next year! Maybe next time Gannon can join!

I wanted to share a link to the Sure Shift website here: http://sureshiftmtb.com/ Maybe they will be Carver’s first sponsor as his “professional” MTB career begins!

Hungry for more? Check out my latest posts!

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• Friedman Family Update – March 2023
• ONE MORE MONTH!
• PROUD MINI VAN OWNER!
• Gannon Update – Genetics 🧬

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