After Greg's month long hiatus in the states, he finally built my bike and took me on my first Mtn Bike ride in Saipan. I couldn't wait to get my bike dirrrrrty! Its rainy season so alot of the roads and trails are nice and muddy. We started off the run at the entrance of Lau Lau Beach Road heading towards the dive site. If anyone has gone diving at Lau Lau they will know how rocky and bumpy that road is. It kind of reminds me of a Toyota Tacoma truck commercial offroading in the jungle somewhere.
Ok, maybe it wasn't that extreme but it was really rough. So we made it to the Lau Lau beach dive site and went towards GapGap Road. There is this really steep gravel hill that just about killed me on the way up! Actually I had to stop and walk my bike up the hill for a bit. Then I got really tired and just stood there wanting to go back down. Greg ended up towing my bike along side him on his way up while I walked up.
After conquering that GapGap hill we went through Kagman village and headed towards Forbidden Island. Guess what another killer hill towards the look out. I was on the "granny" cycle all the way up and was going so slow! I felt my legs burning. We finally made it to the look out to take a quick picture and then raced back down since we spotted rain coming in from the distance. Overall the ride was only 10 miles but it felt longer than that. Not too shabby for my first Mtn bike ride, eh?! Hell of the Marianas Race is this weekend and bikers will be racing 100k! So crazy. Here's a little map of my morning ride from Lau Lau all the way to Forbidden Island and back.
I think i'm starting to get use to the different gears. Throughout the whole run I kept switching from gear to gear. Also I was practicing how to brake without losing control on the gravel and dirt roads. My disc brakes are sweet! I dread wiping out but know eventually it may happen. Greg raced down the steep hills flying over rocks and dips. Not ready to go that fast yet.
One thing I love about Mtn biking is that you don't have to have someone always with you. You can just take off whenever and wherever. I enjoy morning rides especially on the north end of the island.
