Take a Kid to DeLaveaga Oct 6th

My family and I went to Delaveaga Park today to do a test run for the young kids ride as part of Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. We wanted to put kids under 7, trail-a-bikes, trailers and child seat riders on an out-and-back along the fireroad. We were concerned that it may be too much climbing for kids on training wheels and recent 2 wheeler riders.

Jade, our five year old, just learned to ride on 2 wheels earlier this summer so she's a great test pilot. We helped her with some of the climbing but the ride back was a fairly gentle grade and she could ride it herself. In fact she had a blast riding back down! I shot some video of her ride and it turned out so well that I decided to cut it into a promotional video.



Jade is no ordinary 5 year old. She kicks ass! She got riding tips from Chris Duncan and her parents - who are excellent mountain bikers - have been riding with her and taking her to bike events all her life. I'm really proud of the fact that she picked up mountain biking so quickly. She understands how to pedal, shift gears, pick lines and how to go over rough terrain. She has been mountain biking since she was a year old so she has probably absorbed a lot over the years. Yes, I'm a proud parent.

Jade really enjoyed the ride so we decided that this would be the right ride for the young kids. The route will be along the fireroad from the Lone Tree picnic area to the dirt jump quarry and back. The bigger kids will do the lower loop single track trails. Perhaps in the afternoon, we'll take the more advanced kids and mountain biking parents to "Top of the World". DeLaveaga is a small park but there are a lot of fun trails in there. All of the trails are redwood forested technical single track. All of them are open to bikes.

Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day is Saturday Oct 6 this year. TAKMTBD is a national event and there will be events all over the world. MBOSC will be hosting Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day at Delaveaga Park, Santa Cruz. There are numerous ride options at DeLaveaga and we'll have a skills course. We will have snacks and drinks and a free raffle for the kids. Santa Cruz Bikes have been very generous and donated some soft goods for the kids (Thanks Mike and Juli!).