PegMonkey Bad Monkey!

Once upon a time there was a playground in western Maryland that could be enjoyed by all. It was wonderful place full of wilderness and adventure. It was a good place to ride your mountain bike, your dirt bike, your horse, your 4 wheeler or just hike by foot. It was a place where everybody got along and shared the trails. It was a great place to go and spend an entire Sunday just enjoying the natural beauty of the terrain and the well maintained trails through the wilderness.

Back in the early 1980s, when I had my summers off, I'd go riding all summer. There were lots of places to ride. I couldn't cover all the area in a day. Fast forward to today. I can go riding now, and cover just about every trail from Westernport to Frostburg in a day. At first I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought, hey, I must be getting pretty fast. But just yesterday I figured it out. The riding area is shrinking.

Training for off road riding can consist of some pretty boring stuff. Running is probably one of the best conditioning exercises available to those who want to prepare for the rigors of racing. But running, to all but the most masochistic of us, is boring. Face it, we like to ride because it provides that rush of adrenaline that we crave. Most of us run, those of us who do run, only because it helps us ride better.