Today, without an iota of hesitation, I loaded up two mountain bikes, some snacks, my Fuji X-T1 and took Lauren to McKinney Falls State Park. On the agenda: girlfriend (ok, fiancé) shred. Lauren had never, ever been on a mountain bike before and was eager to do so. She’s actually the one who recommended we take advantage of the overcast afternoon and get out on the trails. Anytime she wants to ride, I’m down and all I had to do was dissuade her from the Greenbelt, with its super technical, rocky terrain.

Instead, McKinney is where we do our Friday afternoon cross hustle loop. The trails are still fairly rocky, but filled with fast descents and narrow singletrack. It’s picturesque and this time of year, filled with wildflowers, birds and other animals.

Even with the relative ease of these trails, I have to say, I was a little nervous. After a 10 mile loop, she was grinning ear to ear and finished the afternoon saying “this was way more fun than road riding!” We ended the morning collecting flowers…

Side note: I had accidentally switched my camera to JPG from RAW, so I lost all the whites in these photos, hence the black and white. Although, I caught it before this photo.