My Friend Kerri.

Waiting for the rain to stop.....it didn't. I am glad that we didn't wimp out, the riding was super awesomeness!!!
Trying to stay dry----it's hard riding with an umbrella----yes I am a wimp!
Kerri- Coming down Shannon Trail above Dipper Lake----an old fave!
Myrtle Junction- trying to decide which trails to ride---too many to chose from!
Kerri- Coming down Shannon Trail
Coming through Rock Slide Trail
Rocky Rock Slide Trail!

My Friend Kerri......
Years and years ago now, I started mountain biking....I wouldn't say Kerri was the one that got me into the sport, it may have been a boy that convinced me to purchase my first mountain bike, and taken me on my first ride.....but after my first ride with Kerri, I knew I had to get better!

I knew Kerri a little from school----we definitely were not friends though :o)
I knew Kerri from working together at Max's Place, where at times we hated each other, we fought and screamed at each while we worked, Max had to tell us to take it to the back!
We were not friends :o)
But somehow we ended up going for a ride together, she took me from town, up to South Star trails....she took me the hard way, through extra bits of single track, up extra hills.....(apparently she still hated me) so that by the time we actually got to the South Star trails, I was DONE! I just went home! I am serious, I couldn't ride anymore, I was embarrassed and humiliated, but there was no way I could keep riding with her that day! We were still not friends.
This just increased my desire to get better! Kerri made me realize how much better I could get at this sport, how fast a girl could be!! She was awesome!
I spent most days biking alone, getting stronger and improving my technical skills. If I came to a hill I couldn't get up, I would attempt it over and over, sometimes until I got it, sometimes until
I was too exhausted and would have come back the next day! Some of these hills took years to conquer!
I don't remember when my next ride with Kerri was, but at some point we were riding together regularly, and the next year we did our first mountain bike race together, (despite being told that we were too slow to race).
Kerri won that race, even with going off course a bit.
I don't remember how I did in that race.
What I remember is that somehow Kerri and I became friends, and I became a Mountain Biker!

Kerri was here visiting for a few days, and we went back to our old romping grounds, we love riding in the Kimberley rooty, rockiness! It is so different from riding in Cranbrook!
Kerri lives WAY up North, where she doesn't even have her mountain bike....but she still rocks!
xoxox