Women’s MTB Day 2023

Pisgah Area SORBA hosted their IWMBD at Kanuga Bike Park in Hendersonville, NC, which was a great location and brought up many folks to the area for their first time. Their event had 70 women in attendance. It was a jam-packed day filled with clinics and guided rides were provided by Dirt Skrrts, Daily Cycle, Industry Nine, and Maggie Rumley from MTB Skills Factory. Delicious pastries and coffee were provided by Flat Rock Bakery, and a PAS volunteer cooked up a phenomenal lunch!! Small Axe Cannabis was also out to support the event. In addition to food and rides amazing prize packages were won by lucky participants with support from groups such as I9, Fox Factory, Cane Creek, Kanuga, Riveter, Motion Makers, Sycamore Cycles, Kids Cycle, and more!

Words By Brittany Mixon

I loaded my Liv onto my car and headed to Big Creek for RAMBO’s Women’s MTB Day ride at Big Creek in Roswell, Ga. I was stoked and a little nervous, as always, that maybe no one would show. It looked a little overcast, and I had playfully posted to FB how it was going to be a beautiful day for our group ride. The forecast in Georgia had been rain, rain, and more rain in the recent months, leaving mountain bikers puzzled as to what they might expect, for a planned event. When I pulled off the exit at Holcomb Bridge Rd, the sun was shining, and I noticed a large hole of blue skies encompassing the area.. Greenlight. This day was going to be beautiful and there WILL be women ready to RIDE! I pulled into Big Creek Park and meandered my way down to the lower parking lot. There was Kelly, already surrounded by some women mountain bikers. YES! I thought, this is going to be awesome, it’s ON! As we started to chat and introduce ourselves, ladies started riding up out of nowhere, then the true blessing of our day happened! Across the parking lot, there stood a gentleman with a brand-new shiny women’s bike with a decorative bow on the handlebars. What might this be? As we watched a woman showed up in a car and parked next to this man. She got out, and instantly we realized the bike was for HER! He said, “Happy Birthday Baby” and she was just smiling so big! We were all cheering for her!! “How amazing,” we shouted, “What a true gentleman!” What an amazing way to kick off our Women’s MTB day event, it genuinely showed how bikes truly bring happiness! We kicked off our group ride from the pump tracks and headed to Stumpy’s Loop Trail, headed left on Troll Bridge Trail, and back down Stump’s Loop Trail to roll down to the Greenway Access. After that, we headed over to the Brand New “Under Construction” Skills area where Kelly told us about the planning and execution of getting this awesome feature built. We even got special access to test out some of the features including a Mini-Flow line, Jump Line, Rock Line, Expert Rock Line, and Rock Drop!!! So much fun and you could tell all the kids riding around us wanted to get on that track and test their skills too! Overall, we had a group of 8 women, all of who look forward to the next women’s mtb event. Thanks to RAMBO for organizing!

Clinch Valley Trail Alliance (CVTA) was thrilled to have six ladies out at Haw Ridge Park on Saturday, May 6th for our Women’s MTB Day ride. Haw Ridge’s trails can be intimidating so we were excited to start the day by introducing the Green Route that offers some of the easiest trails in the park to them as a warm-up. There were two ride options to choose from – green and blue – and after riding the Green Route with great confidence and progression all of the women opted to complete the blue ride route. CVTA member Kailey Pemberton organized the event, planned the routes, and led the ride with assistance from Kim Brophy and Lisa Mueller of the CVTA Board as sweeps. The ladies socialized with pizza, snacks, and cold beverages upon their return to CVTA HQ. Kailey’s already planning a progressive series of Haw Ridge rides for late summer in conjunction with the Joy Ride program of our sister SORBA chapter, Appalachian Mountain Bike Club (AMBC).