My brother convinced me to buy a mountain bike on Friday and we went up to Kettle Moraine on Saturday for a ride. I was a bit nervous, hoping that I wouldn’t hurt myself, since I’d never done anything like this. I love riding my bike, but I usually stay on pavement, which makes the riding pretty easy, even in traffic. Since there were a few of us who had never done it before, we went on an intermediate trail of about 4 miles. It was about 41 degrees, which wasn’t bad, but it was totally muddy. And I have to be honest, I haven’t gotten that filthy in a long time and it was fun. Since it was so muddy and a bit chilly, I couldn’t take too many pictures because it was a pain to take off my gloves and get the camera out. But here are a few shots from the day.

Getting ready with our brand-new bikes.<figcaption id="caption-attachment-846" class="wp-caption-text">Getting ready with our brand-new bikes.</figcaption></figure>

Our bikes are no longer classified as new.<figcaption id="caption-attachment-847" class="wp-caption-text">Our bikes are no longer classified as new.</figcaption></figure>

The end of the trail. Going up hills with the trail like this was hilarious.<figcaption id="caption-attachment-848" class="wp-caption-text">The end of the trail. Going up hills with the trail like this was hilarious.</figcaption></figure>

That's me!<figcaption id="caption-attachment-849" class="wp-caption-text">That’s me!</figcaption></figure>

Sevi needed a rear fender.<figcaption id="caption-attachment-850" class="wp-caption-text">Sevi needed a rear fender.</figcaption></figure>

The muddy bikes ready to go home to get hosed off.<figcaption id="caption-attachment-851" class="wp-caption-text">The muddy bikes ready to go home to get hosed off.</figcaption></figure>

I also downloaded an app to see if we could map our ride, because that sounded pretty cool. Here’s what MapMyRide says we did.

Screen Shot 2013-01-21 at 9.10.43 AM

I was just an hour, but I think that was perfect for my first time trying it.