When I was a young child I had a Big Wheel. I road that Big Wheel everywhere. I loved my Big Wheel. I know this because my mom has told me so, and I’ve seen pictures of me on my Big Wheel with a huge smile on my face. Sadly I don’t remember all the fun I had on my Big Wheel. I was too young.

The first wheeled form of transportation I remember riding was a second hand pedal bike with training wheels. I distinctly remember asking to have those training wheels removed. I also distinctly don’t remember my dad running behind me holding my seat. I could get the bike to stay upright when going down the driveway, but not going up. I learned quickly that speed was my friend. Soon enough I was out riding around the neighbourhood.

When I outgrew that bike my parents bought me a Raleigh BMX. Not one with those 5 spoke wheels though. I was rather cheesed off since I wanted one of those awesome “dirt bikes”. The really heavy ones with the coil over shocks, banana seat, and red plastic gastank. But my dad insisted that these BMX bikes were the next big thing. I’m happy he didn’t give in to me. My bike lasted a long time, and was so light I was able to smoke all my friend in the neighbourhood races around the block. And when we started going to the local dirt jump spot I could get as much air as I wanted. My friends on their “dirt bikes” not so much. I loved that BMX.

Eventually I outgrew that bike and stepped up to a “mountain bike.” It was sold to me as that but was really a cross over. Fortunately that one got stolen while I was at work and I had to buy a new one. I scrapped together some money and bought a GT Timberline. Not the greatest, but at least it was a real mountain bike. That bike was great, when I got it I road it around my neighbourhood just enjoying how light it was, how crisp the shifting (1st gen Rapidfire awesome!)… This was the bike I did my first mountain biking on.

In High School I managed to find some other guys who liked riding their bikes on dirt. One of them became my best friend in the whole wide world, and still is. We would go riding on our local trails in the Rouge Valley (still off limits) and Seaton Hiking Trail (not necessarily off limits). We learned the old fashion way, but trying things and falling off until we mastered the skill. Thankfully MTBAction had a good skills article each month with useful tips.

I took the GT to University with me and the seat was stolen. I road without a seat for a week until the Waterloo CyclePath could get a seat post in stock. Midway through my University years my grandfather died. He was quite old and had a long good life. I remember taking my BMX to the trailer park and just noodling around, using the speed bumps as jumps. Anyway, he left me some money which I used to by a TBL Hurricane. Wow what a step up from the GT. I rode that bike actively for 10 years and still have it. It’s now a commuter for me to pull my daughter in the Chariot.

During my time at a University I had access to the family truck so I could start exploring more than just my local trails. For the first time I got to ride such great spots as 3 Rocks, Durham Forest, Hardwood Hills, Greenwood, Ravenshoe… This was the start of something good. When I graduated and got my own vehicle the I was up at 3 Rocks and Durham Forest a lot. Rouge Valley and Seaton had become almost forgotten.

I decided I wanted to try my hand a racing. So I bought myself a new light dual suspension Devinci Dragonfly. It had disc brakes, and tubeless tires. Isn’t technological progress great. I did my training and I got much better as a rider, and a lot faster, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m really not that fast.

A major turning point happened during my racing years. My Dragonfly needed new wheels, so I went to the local shop to order them. When I came back to pick them up I was asked to sign a petition. Apparently Greewood, a local riding area, was being closed to mountain biking. Whoa! How did this happen? Sure I’ll sign that petition. I’ll also make a few phone calls. This was the first step on my road to becoming an advocate.

I discovered IMBA and signed up for a trail workshop they were leading in East Gwillumbury. We only built about 200m of walking path, but Mark and Lora told me of an upcoming trail build in the Don Valley. After that I attended a build in 2004 in the Don Valley. It was rainy and cold, but after two long days we had a lot of trail build including three nicely insloped (bermed) turns. I was hooked on building. It was almost as much fun as riding. Almost. More trail builds, including a crew leader workshop, led me to leading a build in late 2006 for the City of Toronto, as well as a rather large hybrid (machine & volunteer) build in Glen Major. In 2007 the City had me lead all four scheduled builds and they were happy enough to want to pay me (!) to lead all the builds in 2008. I’ve also kept up with the building in Glen Major and have been pushing to get some building going in Durham Forest.

On a parallel path I started calling land owners and land managers of the popular riding places Durham Region. It just so happened that the TRCA was looking for someone to represent the mountain bike interest on a stewardship committee for the Glen Major complex of properties (you might know it as 3 rocks). I agreed and now I’m not only on the executive committee for that property, but also have connections with the managers of Durham Forest, am the Pickering citizen rep on the Durham Trail Coordinating Committee, represented mountain bikers in the Crothers Woods Trail Plan, and have just recently joined a trail steering committee for a new property in Scugog, among other things. This means a lot of meetings and not as much time riding, but I’m doing my best to represent mountain biking interests.

Footnote: I am also a founder and the current president of the Durham Mountain Bicycling Association. While I was learning about trail building and meeting land owners, I was also searching for an existing bike club in my region that was focussed on advocacy. Not only didn’t I find one, I didn’t really find any organized club at all. So I put the word out and called the first meeting. I’m glad to note that many others felt the same as I did, that we needed to be organized or risk being on the short end of the stick one day, possibly even being kicked out of more trail spots than just Greenwood. Now the club is in it’s 3rd year of existence and we are just over 70 members.

PS: I know this is the About Me page. And I’ve talked a lot about what I’ve done. But I can’t stress enough that none of it would have been possible if I hadn’t met a lot of great people, both mountain bikers and not. It also would not have been possible if the land owners weren’t open to working with mountain bikers. In short I seem to be in the right place at the right time with the right people behind me.