After over four years of living in Denver, who would have thought that the first time Kim and I ever used our mountain bikes for their intended purpose would be after moving back to Cincinnati? I’m not sure why we never rode our bikes on the Colorado trails, I guess we always had too many other things going on and the trails always seemed so far away. Now that we are spending our weekends at my parents house, complete with in-house babysitters and nearby trails, we have no excuses.

Late last week I found the Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance and realized that the trail at Landen-Deerfield Park was just 15 minutes away from my parents. A friend had previously recommended the trail as quick alternative to some of the farther away trails of Cincinnati. I attempted to get a few friends to meet us at the trail for a Sunday afternoon ride, but was unsuccessful in doing so. It actually turned out okay that no one else was able to join us, as it was pretty comical in the beginning as we tried to get comfortable plunging down the trail on our bikes. Almost immediately I took a tumble off the trail and into a sticker bush, but I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying a couple of laps on the trail.

The trail itself is almost two miles long (map) and has a couple of very challenging creek crossings. The first time we rode the trail, I think we rode it opposite of the intended direction. This could help to explain my early fall on the slick downhill and why every obstacle seemed much more challenging than we expected. When we rode a second time we went clockwise, which I believe is the intended direction, and it all seemed much easier. Both Kim and I ended up having a blast on the trail and we look forward to trying some other trails in the near future.