Yesterday, I finally left the gravel roads and horse paths and headed up my first steep mountain trail on a bike. I let about 1/3 of the air out of my tires first, and that seemed to improve my traction, as well as soften the ride.

The climb was grueling, with me losing all forward movement after about a mile. There was a hair-pin switchback in the middle of a very steep rise at that point, and it was just too much. I got off to push (after catching my breath and letting the nausea subside. I was pushing HARD), then remounted and continued on at the crest of that particular steep part. I alternated between standing to pedal (which turned my legs to noodles and kept spinning my rear tire with traction loss) and pedaling in a very low gear. Lordy, that was a workout!

I discovered some things. Coming back down was great fun, something I thought I had outgrown 35 years ago. Pedals held even horizontally while coasting do not catch rocks and roots so bad as you go by, horsing that bike around curves and obstacles at downhill speed is a workout in itself, and I can see how people get addicted!

Today is a recovery day (yesterday's ride finally tallied up 14 miles). I'm eating everything in sight, but I dont hurt. Time to plan the next assault.

I welcome any advice for feedback to help me get better on this journey.

Too much for me too.

Back in my mountain biking days I sometimes used to wonder why I bothered with the bike since I seemed to be pushing it so much of the time. My sons, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any trouble riding their 40+ lb. free ride bikes up the same climbs.