Girlz Gone Riding

GGR Women's Weekend In Big Bear July 25th, 26th, 27th 2025

8/2/2025

💜 Why I Keep Showing Up: Big Bear 2025
Every year, I wrestle with the decision to continue hosting this event. The world—and our community—has changed. COVID shifted how we connect. The rise of e-bikes created tension on the trails. Some riders no longer feel comfortable in group settings. We've lost core leaders, including a beloved volunteer who lost her battle with cancer. And personally, I’ve faced my own losses over the past three years. The memories of Big Bear are bittersweet, and with work taking over my life and constant travel, I’ve had to mostly step back from GGR—a shift that’s had a noticeable impact on the club.
But despite it all, I load up my car with GGR gear and head to Big Bear. Because even though the turnout isn’t what it used to be, it still matters to those who show up. And that’s enough.

🚴 Thursday: Summit Warm-Up
Some volunteers arrived early. I was running on fumes but picked up Lauren for a few runs at Summit. I haven’t been back since last year and was excited to test my new mullet setup—thanks to Cosmo for rigging it up! We kept it light with a few runs on Turtle and my favorite, Blue Steel. The setup felt amazing.

🎪 Friday: Skypark & Our New Tent
Friday marked the debut of our new GGR tent, thanks to Jennifer Disser from our SD chapter. She researched stronger materials to ensure durability, and the result was incredible—even the case has wheels for easy transport.
Stacey Lambert and Kristen Lane led a guided tour for first-timers at Skypark, and we had a great turnout. The weather was perfect, and by afternoon, GGR riders had the park to themselves. I got in plenty of laps on Arrow—my favorite trail—and had an absolute blast.

🌄 Saturday: XC & DH Adventures
With Summit’s XC trails closed due to the Line Fire, our Blue XC riders headed to Hanna Flats and Grays Peak in Fawnskin, led by Desi and her team. Every rider made it to the peak—a lung-busting climb with breathtaking views.
For DH, Skyline was closed, so everyone shared Going Green. It’s scenic, pedally, and fun for all levels. Many riders graduated to Turtle, and some even tackled Blue Steel!
We also had Blue and Black Diamond downhill riders who got in plenty of solid runs and made the most of the gnar!

🍽️ Saturday Night: A New Kind of Dinner
This year, we tried something new—a potluck dinner at Home 2 Suites by Hilton. We rented a room and asked for donations at the door. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we covered the room, the GGR cake, and all supplies. The hotel’s courtyard was beautiful, and we stayed warm by the fire pits.
This weekend was dedicated to our dear Liz Kurtz—a veteran rider, leader, and friend. Her wife Jeanine made the long drive to share a heartfelt tribute to Liz and her love for GGR.

🌲 Sunday: Maple Hills & Summit
Sunday featured XC at Maple Hills, now a favorite among riders. Anne Yeoh and her IE chapter volunteers pre-rode the trails to ensure a great experience. Meanwhile, at Summit, Coach Gail Shafer continued the DH progression with Jumana, started by Coach Amy Rambacher Saturday. Watching riders push their limits and grow their skills was inspiring.

💬 Why I Keep Coming Back
Every year, I say it’s my last. The work, the drama, the no-shows—it’s exhausting. But then the messages start coming in. You know who you are. The ones who remind me why this matters. Why it’s worth it. Why I keep showing up.

This is my why.

Huge special thanks to Anne Yeoh for getting so many volunteers and doing a ga-zillion pre-rides.
Desi, my good friend, for making the XC happen! I knew you could do it!
Jeanine, thank you for making the long drive with a broken toe to share your stories with everyone about Liz and donating some of her things to our community
Lauren, thank you for riding up with me, listening to me vent and for all your support.
Every single volunteer. Thank you!

And an ask to everyone:
📣 Share the Ride, Share the Joy!
If you're planning to ride with friends on a set day, why not post it as a pickup ride and invite others? It’s a great way to help fellow riders discover new trails, build confidence, and connect with more women in the community.
After all, isn’t that what GGR is all about—why we all joined? Supporting each other, growing together, and having fun on the bike? Members will appreciate it!

Thinking of you Liz, MB and Danusia………..all of you will always be in our hearts.

Love to you all, GGR Girl Wendy E.

GGR IE and SD Vail Lake Weekend 4/28/23 - 4/30/23

6/16/2023

GGR weekend at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula was hosted by the Inland Empire (IE) and San Diego (SD) chapters of Girlz Gone Riding. This is the second year of our camp and bike weekend at Vail Lake Resort. Vail Lake Resort is central to our two chapters and makes for a perfect place to host a ride and camping weekend.

Friday – Day 1
The weekend began on Friday, when many showed up at Vail Lake to setup camp, relax, and ride the trails. Friday night was the first of our two potlucks, and many contributed. Stacey and Cedric Melcher cooked the main meal of spaghetti for all of us. A special thanks to them for organizing and hosting the potluck dinners.

Saturday – Day 2
The second day, Saturday, had people coming in for the day to ride with those of us who camped. We hosted Greenie 2, Greenie 2 Plus, Blue, and Blue 2 rides this weekend; many chapters were represented, with participants from the IE, SD, Orange County (OC), Big Bear (BB), and Los Angeles (LA) chapters. After the ride, the IE chapter hosted a subway lunch for everyone. The IE chapter hosts an annual fundraiser during the annual birthday ride in January. This year we had enough donations to pay for lunch for everyone, which allowed all the riders to come together to bond, chat, catch up, and relive the ride. We had a great turnout for the ride and lunch!

After lunch, it was more chatting, snoozing, pool partying, and preparing for our potluck dinner. Saturday night was a taco bar potluck. Lots of people prepared food, and a special thanks to Michele and Trent Martin (especially Trent) for roasting a pork shoulder all day. Dinner had lots of appetizers, sides, and desserts. We did enough damage to negate all the calories burned on that day's ride.

Sunday – Day 3
On the final day of the weekend at Vail Lake Resort, participants took part in a recovery ride before checking out of the campground. This ride was a chance to wind down and enjoy a more leisurely pace on the trails while taking in the beautiful scenery and views of the lake. We had members come in for the day to Vail Lake to participate in our Blue Enduro and Cross Country (XC) rides. The recovery and enduro ride were a perfect way to close out the weekend.

End to a perfect Weekend
The IE and SD chapters hosted this ride, and many ride leader volunteers came out to pre-ride to make sure the routes were suitable for the group. Last-minute ride adjustments were done because of a BMX Dirty Fest that was there that same weekend. A special thanks to IE chapter director Anne Yeoh for coordinating the camping, rides, and subway lunch. A special thanks to Kamala Slight, San Diego Chapter Director, for co-hosting our 2nd annual joint club ride.

This year’s routes were spectacular!
Huge thanks to Shelly Wilson Cheng for spending so much time and energy mapping out and pre-riding the routes with us!

Special thanks to the following volunteers, members, family, and friends of GGR: they helped cook dinner, stood by to help and support us behind the scenes, got us snacks, led, floated, and swept our rides!

• Anne Yeoh
• Kamala Slight
• Keri Porter Davis
• Michele and Trent Martin
• Stacey and Cedric Melcher
• Becky Sox
• Karl and Shelly Wilson Cheng
• Krissy Dominguez
• Isabel Mesa
• Andrea Wood
• Kara Dutton
• Kristen Lane
• Jennifer Disser
• Kerstin Kirchsteiger
• Dagmar Mathis Pascua
• Laura Watts
• Pamela Ho
• Linda Flores
• Jose Fernandez

About Girlz Gone Riding (GGR): Our mission is to get more women mountain biking and to ensure they have a great experience on every ride.

Vail Lake Resort is also called Vailocity Bike Park. It is in the Southern California area and has 25 miles of world-class trails, obstacles, a flow track, and races for mountain biking, gravel biking, and BMX.

The campground at Vail Lake Resort is spacious and well-equipped, with amenities like hot showers, fire pits, a pool, picnic tables, a pickleball court, a miniature golf course, disc golf, horseshoes, deluxe cabins, tent sites, full hookup RV sites, maintained restrooms, a cafe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a bar serving post-ride pints and cocktails and live music.

GGR's 8TH ANNUAL WEEKEND IN BIG BEAR

7/29/2022

Another year at my favorite GGR event in beautiful Big Bear.

Thursday arrival
This year started like every year has in the past with many of us driving up on the Thursday. I had just got back from traveling from work Wednesday night, so I was wiped, yet extremely stoked to begin this long weekend with 100 like minded women ready for an adventure.

Many decided to go to Snow Summit early for some DH runs. I needed to get everything in order to ensure Friday started off as smooth as possible, plus I was exhausted, so no riding for me on Thursday.
I also wanted one night for myself and Hugh to have a lovely dinner in town, get caught up and discuss the 3 days ahead.

Day 1 Friday Snow Summit Day

The ladies were ready EARLY this year and so was Snow Summit! They opened the ticket windows early just for GGR which we so greatly appreciate and we thank them!

The morning always starts off with ladies checking in at the booth. They sign in, get their bike plate, and if they are riding DH for the day, they get pre qualified for the group they will join to ensure they have a great experience and are as safe as possible.

Before our general morning meeting, I always have a volunteer meeting. We discuss everything from meet & greets, headcounts, taking pictures, spacing on the trails, emergencies, etiquette and more. It preps everyone for the day. It's a time when I can get the volunteers motivated and remind them that this day is all about empowering woman and ensuring they have a great experience.

We are successful at this because our volunteers are trained and have guidance. These are also strong, independent women who are kind, empathetic, tough and show outstanding leadership skills.

After the volunteer meeting, I address our crowd and tell them what they can expect for the day. Once we have taken some group photos, we then we split up into groups for meet & greets. The DH women get in line for the lifts and the XC ladies hit the trails.

This year I got to take one of the Intro to DH groups along with Coach Jeana Miller of Non-Dot and just had a blast! My group graduated very quickly from Going Green ending with Blue Steel!

Day 2 Saturday Skypark Day & Group Dinner

Skypark day
This seems to always be the most popular day. There were scares of showers and radar pictures that were frightening, however in the end, it didn't rain much and only came down hard at the end of our evening festivities.

So many pictures so I will let them speak for themselves. I do want to congratulate the award winners!

Best Badass Shredder -Lena Amelang: San Diego Chapter
Best GGR Spirit: Chelsea McBride - San Diego Chapter
Outstanding Volunteer: Sara Crawford - IE Chapter
Best Come Back: Anne Yeoh: IE Chapter

Day 3 Maple Hills & Snow Valley

Maple Hills XC
Thanks to Big Bear Chapter Director Ali Hyde for the days recap and volunteering for this new part of our event as well as Susa Mueller!

Despite the threat of rain, 24 women arrived eager to experience some new Big Bear trails!

Maple hills is a relatively new system of exclusively single track trails in Big Bear, located on private land which means E-Bikes are also legal there. We set out as one big group with just a sprinkling of rain.
Fairly quickly we could see a split in the group, so we separated into a faster and a more mellow group. As the rain increased, no one seemed to care as we whooped and hollered through the undulating flowy singletrack! Rain usually passes through quickly in Big Bear but we soon realized this downpour was not easing.
The great thing about Maple Hills is there is an abundance of options, so you are not stuck on one big loop and you can change to an alternative route at several places.

Eventually my group chose to shorten our route and head back but still had a great time on the trails we did get to ride. We arrived back to the cars shortly after the other group and said some quick goodbyes as everyone left with smiles on their faces but ready to find somewhere to get warm and dry!

SNOW VALLEY DH DAY
I can't begin to tell you how much I love Snow Valley! Unfortunately, due to the rain, I only got a few runs in, then I had to make the long drive home so I could get ready to hop on a plane to Minneapolis for the week for work.

We had many first timers this year at Snow Valley. I got to sweep Tamara's fast group which was SOOOOO FAST! I had to constantly pedal to keep up just to sweep the ride! I was so thrilled to be able to help some of these ladies get through the rock garden on Bandit and then be able to photograph it. I remember sessioning this section a lot before I felt comfortable rolling down it. The entrance is a bit tricky to line your bike up due to the climb just before it. The picture makes it look flat. Its not!

As usual, I left in tears...........happy and proud mama tears. Grateful that my volunteers did such an outstanding job as they always do. Thankful the drama was low and especially thankful no serious injuries.

So many to acknowledge and thank. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all the participating organizations for your continued support of our women's mountain biking community.
Enormous thanks to all the volunteers that helped on the front lines for this event and behind the scenes. I can't do this without you. Thank you!

Event sponsor:

Dilbeck Realtors and Leah Dilbeck. THANK YOU!!

Product sponsors:

Kuat Racks
San Juan Huts
Kali Protectives

Venues

Snow Summit
Skypark
Snow Valley

Year Round Supporters

CORBA
REI
Ibis Bicycles
Eliant Technologies

Tireless and rock star volunteers

Ali Cross Hyde
Amy Rambacher
Andrea Wood
Anne Yeoh
Becky Sox
Cammie Brinkman
Chelsea McBride
Dagmar Pascua
Debra Smith
Dilbeck Realtors
Heather Muhle
Hugh Warren
Isabel Mesa
Jeana Miller
Jeanine Curcione
Jennifer Disser
Kamala Slight
Kathy Tebben
Kristen Lane
Laura Watts
Lauren McDonald
Leah Dilbeck
Liz Kurtz
Sarah Crawford
Shelly Cheng
Susan Bowan
Susan Mueller
Susie murphy
Tamara Napier
Tracy Jones
Tracy Sheehy
Wendi Hoagland

I sincerely hope I have not left anyone out. Everyone of you is such a huge part of our organization and our women's mountain biking community, supporting our mission of getting more women to mountain bike and ensure they have a great experience every time. Empowering women through mountain biking. Supporting and cheering each other on. This is our tribe, our strength, our joy and our future. Spread the word, spread the vibe!

An extra special shout out to the San Diego Chapter for such a great showing this year. Well done Kamala Slight, GGR SD chapter Director! I knew that day at the damn I made the right decision. You have completely blown away my expectations as a leader. Thank you and I appreciate you so much.

I also want to extend my enormous thanks & sincere appreciation to Hugh Warren for everything you do behind the scenes to support our community for this event. Thank you for all the extremely valuable direction and advice you always provide to me. Promise I'll practice those switchbacks more........

Until next time, please check your chapters EVENT pages and support the events. If you want to volunteer, please contact your chapter director. We need more volunteers!

Thank you,

GGR Girl Wendy E

GGR's Annual Women's Weekend in Big Bear

8/1/2021

This was our 6th annual women’s weekend in Big Bear. 2020 was missed due to Covid, so thrilled we were able to hold the event this year. I’m going to bring you on this journey from my eyes. This event is about empowerment, community, and over the top FUN! Hope you enjoy the ride!

An enormous thank you to all the people who shared the photos and especially to Terri Rippee, from our San Diego chapter for all her incredible shots and videos!

Thursday Arriving in Big Bear
I had to work a bit Thursday morning, so didn’t arrive in BB until noonish. I unloaded the car, then headed to Summit to meet up with Hugh & get a few runs in before all the chaos. Many of the girlz who drove up early, were already riding.
Did a run on Blue Steel with Tam, Kathy and Hugh. Then Hugh and I rode for the rest of the day mostly on Blue Steel and had lunch at the top. This was the 1st time I tried a Beyond Burger, and it was amazing! Hugh also broke out his Fat Bike to see how it jumped on Blue Steel and he seemed to love it.

We came back and packed up his Trooper with all the booth gear for Friday. This Trooper is a relic! A manual transmission with well over 300K miles on it and still runs sweet. I don’t think he will ever part with it. It fits all the GGR booth equipment and everything else we needed to put on this event.

Myself, Hugh, all the girlz staying in the house and a few others, went into town for Margarita’s and dinner at the Sonora Grill which was excellent. It was great to have a quiet dinner with friends before the event and just relax and catch up.

After a very long day including a 3-hour drive for me, and another 3 big days ahead, we were both exhausted and hit the hay as soon as we got back.

Friday Snow Summit

We arrived at 7:45am at Snow Summit and started to unpack. Within about 15 minutes women started showing up. Christina and David Turner helped us set up our booth and Christina’s jewelry booth. She always makes us a line just for GGR and it’s beautiful!

Women started checking in and getting their bike plates. This year, Kathy Tebben had a great suggestion which really helped. We had all DH riders check in with her so she and the others could vet the riders out to ensure they would enter the correct group per their ability ensuring their safety and a great experience. We will incorporate this task into next year’s event as well. We then had our ride volunteer meeting discussing everything from riding in altitude to trail etiquette.

After we waited for riders to get their lift tickets, we had our morning meeting with the group welcoming everyone and discussing the events of the day. Then lots of group photos and photos of the ride volunteers. This year, we were lucky enough to have a professional photographer who donated her time from the SD chapter, Terri Rippee. Next, we broke up into groups. The Blue 2 XC group was HUGE this year, a real surprise! So was the DH and Greenie 2. Most of the groups broke up into smaller groups.

During the mayhem of the morning, I kept asking where Anne Yeoh was, our IE chapter Director. Anne is always on time and dependable, so we were getting concerned. Finally, I got a call that there was a terrible accident and Anne was involved. At first, we heard she got hit by a car. Then once the facts started coming out, we learned no car was involved, but her “Anne Van” broke down where she was camping, so she decided to ride over to Snow Summit. During the ride over is where she crashed hard. Two good Samaritans found her and called the paramedics. Anne will be off the bike for a while and GGR wishes her a speedy, full recovery!

I was part of the ride volunteers for Intro to Down Hill which #proamy headed up. (Amy Rambacher, the OC Chapter Director and Pro Enduro, DH racer)

It is always overwhelming and emotional for me seeing all the women in GGR jerseys in line at the chair lift. I think back 10 years ago to GGR just being a thought to get women together so they wouldn’t be riding alone, and I see where we are now and I'm still astonished.

We took chair 2 up since it’s a super fun trail, and it takes us to the entrance of Going Green. Then took a few group shots with Big Bear Lake as our backdrop, and proceeded to drop into Going Green, a 2.98 mile beautiful descent through the forest with lake views.

We took another few runs, then split up for lunch. I saw Hugh so he joined us for lunch as well. He ended up riding with Joe, Barb Tarino’s BF who drove all the way from Kingman, Arizona! After lunching, our group split up a bit, so I did a run with Hugh, then spent the rest of the day at the GGR booth. We broke down around 3pmish, loaded everything into the Trooper and headed home for the evening.

I saw so many smiles from riders all throughout the day, as well as a few suffer faces from the XC ladies. We were lucky enough to have coach Jeana Miller step up at the very last minute to guide our fast XC ladies out on Skyline. The reports coming in from the ride volunteers were positive, so I felt day one went well except for a few small hitches and of course Anne getting injured.

I knew Saturday would be a very long day since we needed to be there early to set up the booth and this year, we were having the group dinner at Skypark for the 1st time. So, I made us a nice dinner and we sat on the patio with some vino and relaxed. It was a good day. Lots of riding for everyone and positive experiences.

Day 2 Skypark Day

Got to Skypark just before 8am with Susie Murphy waiting for us in the parking lot to get the GGR booth set up.
Plan was to check in women until 10am, then move the booth over behind the bar. This way ladies had a place to hang all day as well as we could engage with all the riders discussing everything GGR. Stephanie, the event director for Skypark was on it. She came to greet us and even got us a golf cart to make it easier moving all our booth gear to the new location.

Once we got the GGR booth set up in the 2nd location, I hung out for a while talking to people and just relaxing. Seeing everyone’s faces lit up after coming down from a run, and Tamara constantly going back up for laps on her Ebike without ever stopping, I was itching to go up. So, I met some of the girls and my friends Cosmo, Randy and of course Hugh at the top to do a run on my favorite trail Arrow. I knew I would only get a couple of runs in for the day, so I wanted to make the most of the fun, so I stuck to Arrow, then later a Comet run to film Tamara and Hugh.

Every run down Arrow I was eyeing those dang enormous tires on the left that stick out of the ground really high. For years these have terrified me. This year was different……….by the end of the day, the plan was to tackle the feature and conquer it. I made a plan, dragged Lauren with me and executed. Since riding the #mojo4, it has given me a whole new level of confidence.

Next and final run was on Comet to film Tamara and Hugh. I forgot how much climbing was on Comet, so by the time I got to them, I was pretty wiped out from the event and the climbing just put me over the top. Tamara was up 1st. There is a ladder drop with a scary entrance including a big tree. I planted myself here to film both. (next goal is to conquer this by the end of the year). Then I was off to film Hugh on his Fat Bike riding the skinnies.
To see the footage, please go to my TickTok account:
Tamara on Comet:
https://www.tiktok.com/@mtnbkcx/video/6989284296058064134?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Hugh on Comet:
https://www.tiktok.com/@mtnbkcx/video/6990817366800190726?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Later on, around 4pmish, we broke the booth down. One of the Skypark employees, I think it was Brad, got us the golf cart again. Hugh came down and loaded everything into the Trooper, then went back to riding. I moved what I needed over to the staging area for dinner and focused on what I was going to say for the evening speeches.

Skypark Group Dinner:
This year we decided to change up the lineup. Included in this change was dinner at Skypark. With COVID still lingering, we were concerned about having 100 women sit inside. We also wanted something a bit more casual this year and after 5 years, needed a change. The women started lining up quickly to check in and purchase raffle tickets. GGR is a dues free club, so the only way we survive is by private donations and raffles during events. Please consider making a donation.

DONATE

This is the 1st time we’ve had raffles during this event. Kuat racks and Kali protectives lead the way with a Sherpa 2 bike rack, knee pads and a Maya helmet. The other raffle tickets were used as give aways for the Leigh Donovan skills clinics and REI Bike Maintenance workshops. The REI community grant is paying for all clinics and workshops!

Dinner started at 6pm. This year we went with a Taco bar that included choice of chicken, beef and of course tofu. For dessert we had a custom beautiful GGR cake Shelly Cheng donated that was delicious. The taco bar was a huge hit this year along with the chips and salsa. Really the perfect after riding meal!

I started speaking around 7pmish. It’s so hard to keep it short and sweet when you have a large audience and there is so much to discuss. So hopefully I reached everyone with our message of community this year.

GGR has been successful because of our branding and how our volunteers and members conduct themselves on the trails. It’s given us a loud voice in the community allowing many accomplishments and bringing needed change to some old industry practices. For examples, please go to our PRESS page to read some of the stories: Girlz Gone Riding Press
REI recognized our organization and the benefits to the community and wanted in. We are grateful for their partnership and awarding us a grant to improve our riders’ skills, safety, and experiences. Thank you REI for supporting the women’s mountain biking community!

Awards!
Every year for this event, we give out three awards. The ride leaders make the decision on which riders earned the awards. These riders leave with a purple and gold plaque and a HUGE smile! Congrats to these ladies for their perseverance, club spirit and just being bad asses!
Best comeback: Karla Del Gradillo
Best GGR spirit: Kristin Lane
Best Badass Shredder: Jessica Tseng and Hana Savage

After a bunch of thank you’s, we called it a night. I was dreading the ride home. It’s a super twisty, windy road all the way back to Big Bear. If you know me well, you know I get car sick all the time, even when I’m driving sometimes. Lauren told me about this watch she wears for diving a few years back. It gives you electric shocks. So not fun to wear, but better than getting sick. And…it works! Nothing has ever worked for me until I tried this watch.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, the battery was dead. I had to white knuckle it back to the house and felt like crap the rest of the night. Next time I’ll remember to charge it!

Day 3 Snow Valley Day/Fawnskin
Riders have 2 choices on Sundays. They can ride XC in Fawnskin with 2 guided rides or choose DH at Snow Valley. Some did BOTH! Since I experienced Snow Valley, I’m going to talk about my day on the lifts.
First a big thank you to Dawn Cook stepping up at the last minute and volunteering for Fawnskin!

Before we even got to Snow Valley, we were finishing packing up the Trooper when Hugh discovered a bolt from his DH frame was missing, which meant we were only bringing two bikes. For me, I was stoked, because we could now take my car and I wouldn’t have to deal with getting car sick in the Trooper. So, this of course made us late transferring everything from the Trooper to my car.

Once we got to Snow Valley, I saw a bunch of riders still getting ready, so I knew everyone else was late as well. The last day of the event, everyone is exhausted, so trying to get riders to start on time is a huge challenge. #proamy was patiently waiting for everyone to get their tickets and gather around. Since the terrain is very similar to Mammoth, she needed to make all the riders aware of this, that had not yet ridden Snow Valley.

Being the last day of the event, for some of us, it was our 4th day in a row riding, so for me, I was grateful to take the lifts on this 4th day and not have to climb. I also took the day off from being Director and let Amy and Tamara handle everything. How sweet it was! I MUST do this more often! I’m so grateful to have incredible volunteers that can step up at any time and take over.

We split up into 2 orientation groups to show riders around the mountain. Tamara took one group, and Amy took the other group. I swept for Amy’s group. Getting the riders safely down the 1st run was challenging with how sandy the terrain was. Everyone was positive and learned from their crashes because the 2nd run, they just slayed it!

The ladies were beat up and tired, so they wanted to take a break. I went up and rode a couple of runs with Tamara’s posse trying to keep up. Soooooo much fun! Tamara waited at the bottom for me to do another run, I didn’t think I had time since I was meeting Hugh at 1pm for lunch, but of course she talked me into it and glad I went! Finished a bandit run and came down to have lunch with Hugh that was waiting patiently.

After lunch we decided to do a run together. On the lifts it started raining hard. It got super cold, but I knew the rain would cause some major hero dirt, so my stoke was on! Sure enough, it was my fastest run of the day on Bandit. SUPER rad!

We got down to the bottom, and we ended up doing Exploration trail early. I was wiped out and I remembered years ago the trail being extra chunky, so I decided I’d sit this one out and be a shuttle driver. So, Tamara, Amy, Liz and Hugh took the lifts up and Jeanine and I drove to the bottom of the trail and waited to pick them up.

Once everyone got down safely, we made our way back to Snow Valley to drop off the riders and chat a bit. Then it was time to call it a day. Hugh and I went to our favorite margarita place, Aztec Grill and had some grilled shrimp and enormous, well deserved margarita’s.

Now it was time to take a deep breath and reflect on the past 4 days. I was both relieved the event was over, yet sad at the same time. A lot of work goes into these events including working many extra hours at my day job ensuring clients have everything they need, just for me to be able to take time off. Hugh also took 2 days off of work making himself available for whatever we needed.

I wasn’t looking forward to leaving my home away from home and getting back to reality, but Monday came around and it was time for me to pack up and make the long drive back home. Virtually every time I leave Big Bear, I break down and cry. My quality of life when I’m in Big Bear is so much better then when I’m home. We ride a lot, go out for dinner, have beautiful evenings out on the patio, it's just such a healthier life style and more fun when I'm there, so of course I’m much more content and don't want to leave.

After a few days, I asked for feedback from the GGR leadership team and WOW did they have some great ideas. Here are just a few examples of what we will implement for next year’s event:

For the bike plates, instead of numbers, the space will be blank so riders can write their names on them.
Jersey/Gear swap at Skypark
Name tags for the Sky Park dinner including what chapter you ride with
Sky Park dinner meet earlier, maybe at 4:00pm for speed ICE BREAKER game. Everyone is on a timer like speed dating and moves down a spot, so every person gets to meet each other. Eat at 5pm. OR…have a happy hour social
Fawnskin: Greenie 2 and Greenie 2 Plus for next year
Skypark more orientation tours. One at 9:30am, one at 10:30am. Turnout was big
XC awards: Suffer fest award!

It’s not easy putting on a 3-day event while working a very demanding, full time job. Therefore, we limit this event to 100 riders and no exhibitors, so it’s manageable and for the most part and a joy to host.
I can’t do this alone. So many people and organizations to thank to make this possible.

I’d personally like to thank and acknowledge everyone involved in this event and those who participated as well. Thank you!

Every one of the volunteers! THANK YOU!
Snow Summit & all their staff: https://www.bigbearmountainresort.com/summer
SkyPark, special thanks to Stephanie Burrows, Event Director: (even the tables on the buffet were in purple! Thank you!) https://skyparksantasvillage.com/
Snow Valley & all their staff: https://snow-valley.com/
REI: for providing GGR with a community grant: https://www.rei.com/
Kuat Racks: https://www.kuat.com/product/sherpa-2-0/
KaliProtectives:https://kaliprotectives.com/collections/knee-shin-pads/products/strike-knee-shin-guard-1
Leigh Donovan: https://ichoosebikes.com/
Jeana Miller: https://trainright.com/coaches/jeana-miller/
Christina Turner: https://www.facebook.com/groups/795404223907167
Ibis cycles: for providing me with an amazing bike that I ride XC AND in all the bike parks! #mojo4 https://www.ibiscycles.com/
Laura “Mega” Watts for everything you do behind the scenes all year round and especially for this event. It’s a HUGE undertaking you gladly volunteer for every year and I thank you & greatly appreciate everything you contribute!
Lauren McDonald for everything you do behind the scenes, especially for this event, and always knowing when I'm overwhelmed and checking in on me, thank you!
Shelly Cheng for donating the enormous GGR cake and trying to keep it cold for 2 days!
Hugh Walton of CCN: Thank you for making the 3-day drive from Boulder, Colorado to meet everyone and get their feedback on the new GGR gear: https://waltoncustom.com/about/
Leah Dilbeck & Dilbeck Realtors: https://www.dilbeck.com/
CORBA: For supporting everything we do! Please join! https://corbamtb.com/
Hugh Warren: Of course, I must acknowledge and thank my incredibly generous and kind boyfriend Hugh. Just a few of the things he did to help with this event:
Stuffed everything he could in his car for the event and drove everything to BB over many trips
Fixed our broken PA.
Took two days off from work making himself available for anything we needed to help make the event a success
Repaired women’s bikes
Got up super early Friday and Saturday, loaded and unloaded everything needed for the booth and event
Opened his garage for 16 women to store their bikes in
Never complained once……..

I hope you enjoyed reading all about this journey and felt like you were right there with me.

GGR’s mission is to get more women on bikes and ensure they have a great experience every time. We do this through our trained volunteers who guide our club rides and events.
Women create new besties, learn/confirm a sense of independence and earn empowerment for all the things they've conquered over the 3 day event. It's a thrill and a gift to observe the joy in these ladies faces during this event.

Until next time, look for the purple jerseys out on the trails and make sure to say hello!

GGR Girl Wendy E, Director & CO-Founder Girlz Gone Riding
www.girlzgoneriding.com
[email protected]
https://www.strava.com/clubs/ggr-girlz-gone-riding

GGR Awarded REI Grant

5/12/2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REI Co-op recognizes Girlz Gone Riding with $5,000 local grant
Woodland Hills, CA – May 15, 2021

In recognition of Girlz Gone Riding’s important role in encouraging more women to get outdoors through mountain biking, the Seattle-based specialty outdoor retailer REI has awarded the group a $5,000 local grant for 2021-2022.

Fast-growing GGR represents over 4,000 female riders in Southern California and Arizona and is the largest women’s mountain-biking club in the country. REI’s generous gift will be used to further support women riders’ skill- and knowledge-building through clinics. Former pro mountain bike racer and Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Leigh Donovan will lead the clinics, while REI will partner with GGR on the workshops on bike maintenance around the Southland.

Says GGR director and co-founder Wendy Engelberg, “I'm beyond excited that GGR has been awarded this grant from REI. This just shows how much REI believes in our mission and vision as an organization.”

As a consumer-owned co-op with 20 million members, REI invests deeply in the outdoor community, supporting efforts that connect underrepresented groups to the outdoors.

Leigh Donovan, who launched her company https://ichoosebikes.com/
in 2014, is an accomplished coach who has worked with GGR before to train and support its members. She will be providing multiple women-only clinics focusing on developing greater confidence and safer riding skills starting in the fall. Last year, she added membership in the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame to her list of accolades.

Girlz Gone Riding was co-founded in 2011 with 85 Los Angeles-area members. The group now has 7 chapters in California and Arizona: Big Bear, Inland Empire, Kern County, Los Angeles, Mojave, Orange County and San Diego.

To learn more, visit http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/
REI: https://www.rei.com/
Contact: Wendy Engelberg
[email protected]

2021 Bring it on!

1/10/2021

The new Ibis Mojo 4

2020 was a challenging year for everyone to say the least. Speaking for myself and our GGR organization, we send positive thoughts to our community wishing our world healing in 2021.

GGR's LA chapter had our March 2020 club ride scheduled and planned. Myself and our ride volunteers even did a pre ride to ensure we were confident that our routes would result in the best end experience for our club members. Then March hit and the pandemic took over the world.

I cancelled all club events for all 7 chapters. On a larger scale, events like Sea Otter and all other races were cancelled. All of us were quarantined and instructed to stay close to home.
For me personally, the year meant loosing my friends Jeff, Lisa and Roy who all were taken much too early. It also meant me learning to work from home full time from my kitchen table.

I've missed my club dearly, especially our monthly club rides where I get to catch up with everyone and see the Greenie riders progress. I thought for sure we were going to be able to still hold our annual women's weekend in Big Bear, but of course that had to be cancelled as well. We were also not able to host any trail work days, partner with REI on building trails, or host our annual CORBA/GGR membership drive. I have however been able to host a mini Greenie ride almost every month to keep newbie riders moving forward.

The best 3 things for me personally in 2020: I was promoted to a national role, I got to spend more time with my boyfriend Hugh (who coached me through 2 rock gardens in Big Bear I previously walked) and I continued my partnerships with Ibis-bicycles and Kuat-racks.

I'm now on the new Ibis Mojo 4. I can tell you this is by far my favorite bike I've ever ridden to date. Climbs well, descends great and maneuvers like a champ. The confidence I've received from both the Mojo 3 and 4 has been a game changer.

So what is to come for GGR in 2021?
We will continue to follow county guidelines for each chapter. No club events will be held until each respective county states it's safe to hold organized, group events.
Riders are riding in pairs and mini groups of 6 or less while social distancing. We are also encouraging Zoom events (virtual events) in each chapter to stay engaged with members.
When restrictions are lifted, we will hold club rides for each chapter as long as each county's restrictions have been lifted. I also hope to hold more workshops to certify ride volunteers in 2021.

GGR is also soliciting new apparel vendors to partner with for 2021. The new GGR store will only be up quarterly for 2 weeks at a time to encourage more club purchases and branding. I'd like to see every GGR member in a GGR jersey!

Now let's hear from our Chapter Directors!
San Diego Chapter: Kamala Slight Director: "Amidst the chaos and shutdowns of 2020, the San Diego Chapter welcomed many new members, a great many who are completely new to mountain biking. In the absence of group rides and events, we have been able to come together online to share experiences, trail and cycling info, and post individual planned rides for those who needed a trail buddy while observing safe distancing. In 2021, we will continue to share online, occasionally meet up for small individual safely distanced rides, until it is safe to hold our organized group rides. As soon as it is safe to do so, we will also be looking to certify additional volunteers."

Kern County Chapter: Tracy Jones Director: "Due to Covid guidelines, the Kern Chapter group rides have been suspended. That being said, a few of us get together a couple days a week for (social distance) rides. We also engage in trail building with the Tehachapi Mountain Trails Association. When restrictions have subsided, I would like to hold another ride volunteer certification clinic as I have a few ladies that would like to join the leadership team. Additionally, I intend on hosting a bike maintenance clinic. This will include a how-to: change a tire, adjust the suspension for weight, and possibly some derailleur tips. This will be held at Cycle and Go here in Tehachapi or Grizzly Cycles, Bakersfield. ..The regular monthly rides will resume and plan on organizing a campout/ride/shuttlefest at Mt. Pinos in July."
Orange County Chapter: Amy Rambacher Director: "In 2020, the OC Chapter was able to host two club rides before life as we know it was changed. The Girlz of the OC stayed connected through our Facebook page and small pick-up rides with a few friends at a time, taking care to follow physical distancing guidelines. In 2021, the OC chapter Girlz will stay in touch with each other by continuing with our small pick-up rides. We also plan to do a few Zoom events and talk about mountain biking topics while we can’t all ride together. Hoping 2021 brings back club rides and an end to this pandemic! Hope to ride with you all soon!"

Big Bear Chapter: Ali Hyde Director: “GGR Big Bear had an entire year of rides and social events planned for 2020! Just as the snow was melting and we were ready to start riding, the Covid restrictions were put in place.
Everyone has continued to ride, either solo or in small, socially distanced groups. We are excited to have gained a new trail system in the Maple Hills area and are looking forward in 2021 to its further expansion. This new system is great for linking small loops together for a longer ride and will be great for beginner rides, hopefully sometime in the near future!”
Inland Empire Chapter: Anne Yeoh Director: "Due to Covid, The GGR IE chapter as other chapters, have not been able to hold club events. However, we did continue our community involvement with • private mini rides • building and distribution of bikes to needy kids in our community • introducing fitness training with Coach Jeana Miller and we hosted eleven (11) virtual meetups! Just a few topics we covered: Meet Leigh Donovan, Wilderness 1st aid, what to carry in your pack.
We intend to support our members at local upcoming bike races and events whenever possible and will continue to encourage pick up rides
Our IE volunteers have been the back bone of our chapter. We love them and we appreciate them!"
Mojave Desert: "The Mojave chapter is STOKED 2021 is here and intends on rebuilding our infrastructure. We are looking for new leadership/volunteer members. If you can commit to once a month, please inquire within!"

I leave you with some fun pictures from this year (please note some photo's are pre Covid), and a fitting quote for the new year:
"Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”
― Oprah Winfrey

All my very best to everyone,

Wendy Engelberg, Director & Co-Founder GGR: Girlz Gone Riding

IBIS Partners with GGR Director Wendy Engelberg

1/13/2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Girlz Gone Riding director Wendy Engelberg and Ibis Cycles sign partnership deal

Santa Cruz, CA – February 3, 2020

As the director and co-founder of the largest women’s mountain-biking club in the country, Wendy Engelberg represents over 3,000 Southern California and Arizona female riders. So when super-influencer Engelberg chooses a bike, her endorsement carries serious weight.

At the beginning of January, Engelberg and Scot Nicol, founder of Ibis Cycles, inked a deal for Engelberg to help Ibis with its brand building, especially in the women’s mountain-biking community. Engelberg will ride Ibis this year at events as well as during her usual schedule of guiding women’s rides and traveling to advocate for female shredders.

Says Engelberg: "When I found out that a woman is the frame designer at Ibis, I knew the bike would fit me perfectly, and it did. I fell in love with the Mojo 3 last year at the Roam Bike Fest in Sedona.” So smitten was Engelberg with the Mojo at the three-day women’s event, she recalls, “I didn't even demo the other brands."

Adds Nicol: “Wendy’s effort on behalf of women’s mountain biking in Southern California has shown incredible results. We are excited to have Wendy continuing to promote women’s cycling, riding our bikes and spreading the word about Ibis and especially about our designer Roxy Lo.”

Ibis Cycles, founded by Nicol in 1981 in Mendocino, CA, today is a global company based in the mountain-biking mecca of Santa Cruz, CA. Ibis is still a 100% employee-owned company and is named after a long-legged waterfowl. In addition to the Mojo, the company’s offerings include the celebrated Ripmo and Ripley, as well as its popular gravel bike, the Hakka. Ibis’ lead designer is Roxy Lo.

Girlz Gone Riding was co-founded in 2011 with 85 Los Angeles-area members. The group now counts just over 3,000 members and has 7 chapters in California and Arizona: Big Bear, Inland Empire, Kern County, Los Angeles, Mojave, Orange County and San Diego.

Engelberg is also supported by these fine companies: Petal Power, Kali Protectives and Kuat Racks.

To learn more, visit http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/

Contact: Wendy Engelberg – (818) 522-0840
[email protected]

GGR's 5th Annual Women's Weekend Big Bear 2019

8/23/2019

As I write these memories for all of you to relive or live for the 1st time, it’s quite bitter sweet. It seems flat out wrong to be writing about something so joyful when tragedy has just struck our community, so I’m deeply torn even telling this story, however I know Marybeth would love the read & would want us to move forward. I also know this story & our adventures will continue on and she would have it no other way because of the love for life and her friends she had.

On September 2nd, 2019, our women’s mountain biking & dive community lost one of our own, a GGR founding member, and one of my closest and most precious friends in the very tragic Conception dive boat accident.

I dedicate this adventure I’m about to share, to you Marybeth Guiney.

Marybeth, you were my very beautiful, smart, fun loving, giving, life thriving and most dearest of friends. I wish we could have spent more time together these last 2 years and shared this past event for one last adventure together. Had I known I’d never have the chance to hug you, ride with you, talk smack with you, be completely immature with you, and tell you how amazing you are, how honored I am for having you in my life and how much I love you, I would have done it a thousand times more & made more effort to spend more time with you. I can’t even bring myself to say the words you are gone……………………

This blog is dedicated to you my most exquisite one. For life won’t ever, ever be the same without you. I will miss you MB, more than you can ever imagine and so will every single person who was blessed to be in your life. You made an impact on both the dive and mountain biking community and you will be forever loved for everything about you.

I ask all of you to tell everyone you care about that you love and appreciate them every single day. Don’t regret that you could have told them how important they are to you and how much you love them, just do it……….. tell them every day.

For you Marybeth……………….

It’s been a long time…………and now I have another story to share with you, I hope you enjoy the read and you feel like you are with me every second of this adventure.

This was GGR’s 5th annual Women’s Weekend in Big Bear. An event that started out 5 years ago as 2 days, and is now a 3 day event and a 5 day week in Big Bear for me personally. This year’s theme was Respect and Compassion.

Every year the pre event rides starts on Thursday at Rim Nordic where we hold our annual Enduro event on Sunday. This year myself, Tamara Napier and Amy Rambacher met to pre ride the enduro stages and to determine routes, check out conditions and meet with Bev who runs Rim Nordic. Myself and many volunteers come out and pre ride their routes prior to any GGR event to ensure each rider has a great experience and today was no different.

It had been about a year since we all had seen Bev, so we chit chatted, caught up, took some silly pictures, then reviewed maps and terrain. We decided on 4 routes, all with pretty short climbs. We pre rode the 1st three stages, then Amy switched out with her hubby Thomas (they take turns with their baby), and we shuttled the last run with Thomas.

It was an absolutely perfect morning with great friends riding our bikes. I couldn’t have been more content chasing my friends down the mountain.

After our pre ride, we all went to our respective houses we were staying at to rest up for the next 3 days of adventure with 100 GGR women.

I still had so much to do. Go to the store, rewrite speeches, review volunteer assignments…wait….O NO!!! Do we even have enough volunteers??? Panic starts to set in and I of course start over thinking everything. Did I answer all the gazillion messages that came in? I’m sure I’ve forgotten important things, didn’t acknowledge people I should have in my speeches, you name it, I was starting to overwhelm myself with worry that I had failed in some way.

Then I was reminded how much I prepared and that I couldn’t be more ready. It’s all good, stay calm.
Thanks boo…

Friday: Skypark Day!

I think the Friday Skypark day is my personal favorite because it’s such an easy day for me. We only need a handful of volunteers to handle the booth set up, checking ladies in, moving the booth and breaking it down. I had a few volunteers that gave Skypark orientations for those that have never been there, otherwise, it’s a super chill day of enduro riding, hangin at the booth, socializing and a great mini swap meet some of the girlz handle.

I wanted to try and sneak in a few runs, then hang at the booth all day so I could engage with all the participants and other riders stopping by the GGR booth to see what all the fuss was about, yet didn’t want to overdo it either and be exhausted for the next few days of big XC rides.

I did a quickie run on Sleigh Ride, then helped move the booth from the front of the park to behind the pub. Then I saw proamy and did a couple of Arrow runs with her.

At 1pm we had our group photo in front of the booth. The photographer from Skypark, Thomas and Hugh took cameras and just kept shooting pictures. Was pretty cool. Even our favorite legend Leigh Donovan joined us for the day. My girls put her to work right away asking a gazillion questions on their bikes, hope she was able to get some runs in! Thank you Leigh!

Finally, towards the end of the day, it was time to grab some lunch and then break the booth down. I waited for Hugh to get done with his Comet runs and we had a nice, chill lunch. Just what I needed. Now time to break down, head back and get ready for the Ride Volunteer meeting and pot luck at the GGR host house.

Ride Volunteer Meeting & Pot Luck Dinner

This will be our last year hosting this meeting & pot luck at the host house, next year our leadership team decided we should have it Friday late afternoon at Skypark while we are all still there and can listen to music and not have to clean up or bring a pot luck item!

For the 1st hour we eat, drink and be merry! Everyone brings a dish to share and Leah made these incredible watermelon margaritas! Lauren made my favorite dish, an artichoke dip which was off the charts good!

Christina Turner from Mountain Gems Hand Crafted Jewelry set up a table in the house just for us to preview all of her purple bike jewelry! See all my bling on my wrist in the above picture from #mtngemsjewelry.

Now it was time to get down to business and hold the meeting. This year I did something different, I decided to broadcast live. I wanted participants to see how structured and organized we are behind the scenes to ensure they have a great experience. I thought it would also show potential sponsors how strong our brand is.
Ali took my phone and we went live. We discussed the agenda for the next few days, every ride route, the volunteer teams, policy and procedures and much more. It’s a critical meeting to have every year to ensure our volunteers are uniformed in relaying the same message.

Snow Summit Day
This day is always intense for me due to it being so long and having the big group dinner. Usually, I help out with Greenie 2 or Intro to DH, this year I swept for Ali’s Blue ride which I was really excited about. It’s such a treat just to show up and not have to do anything but chill in the back and watch the back half of the riders. Ali is an outstanding ride volunteer and Big Bear chapter Director, so all I had to do is sweep and enjoy the ride which I did very much!

I drove in around 8amish to Snow Summit and my volunteers already had the booth up. They are a well-oiled machine! I started to get all the odds and ends out for the booth.

This year we had a couple of real treats. Gina, from All Pro Bicycles https://allprobicycles.com/, brought a ton of goodies to hand out.
We also had Bright Food Bars that donated a TON of their amazing bars! Many of us are eating real food now out on the trails, and that’s why these bars are perfect for us! My favorite bar is the carrot and pineapple and also the kale and apple: https://brightfoods.com/

Grizzly Cycles were setting up as well. They donated their day to do basic bike repairs and just worked for tips. This is their 3rd consecutive year donating their time for GGR! Please visit Kevin and the gang at:
Grizzly Cycles in Bakersfield, CA: https://www.grizzlycycles661.com/... Owner Kevin Talley.

This year we had another treat of Christina Turner setting up with her Mountain Bike Gems Hand Crafted Jewelry! I was blinged out for the weekend with lots of purple bike jewelry! Please give her a visit! https://www.facebook.com/mtngems/

Once we were all set up, I started to feel overwhelmed worrying that no one would show up and was panicking a bit like I do every year for every event. (if you ever put events on, you know what I'm talking about). Hugh stopped by to see if he could help at all before he left to go hit the lake with his kayak, so I asked him to just take care of my bike, then I could focus on everything else.

At 8:30am we had a quick volunteer huddle to again review etiquette, duties, and to get the girlz PUMPED for the day! Now it was time for the morning commencement.

Around 9:15amish, everyone gathered for our annual morning commencement. I was especially excited for this year because we were crowning a new IE Chapter Director.

I welcomed everyone to our 5th annual women’s weekend and discussed our theme of Respect and Compassion.

While I was speaking about trail use, etiquette and how we are ambassadors for our mountain biking community...............who do I see???
My buddy Steve Messer, President of CORBA! https://www.corbamtb.com/!
I asked Steve to come down and say a few words, so he jumped over the fence and talked to the crowd! I was thrilled he was willing to address our club and is so easily able to speak at the spur of the moment!

This year our leadership team decided to make it easier to recognize all ride volunteers, so we all had yellow bandana’s to identify us as GGR volunteers.

I then introduced all of the chapter directors.
Tracy Jones: GGR Kern Chapter
Kamala Slight: GGR San Diego Chapter
Ali Hyde: GGR Big Bear Chapter
GGR Mojave Leadership Team: Heather Muehle, Denise Myers and not present but just as important Lisa Land
Amy Rambacher: GGR OC Chapter

Then I announced our NEW IE Chapter Director Anne Yeoh! Amy Rambacher, our OC Chapter Director, welcomed Anne, handed over the baton and gave her a great word of advice! "Surround yourself with great people and you will be successful!"

I asked everyone to show Anne our support and respect.

I then discussed the agenda for the day, we split up for a group photo and then into our own respective groups of DH and XC.

Saturday Group Dinner at Nottingham's

Well, I had to cut my super fun ride short to get back to the booth, get an injury report and just check in on my girlz. So I left Ali’s ride, had Lauren take over sweep for me, (Thank you Lauren!), and decided to take the steep way back for some extra credit climbing and avoid riding the busy Blvd.

After getting reports and giving direction for breaking down everything, I needed to get back to the house, review my speech and try and relax for a bit.

Of course I couldn’t decide what to wear. Normally, I, like many others wear our GGR tee and jeans. But I just felt different tonight, like I wanted to wear something a little more special. But you know I had to first find out what everyone else was wearing, so I started a FB thread with the GGR host house to see what the plan was. I think I changed 4 times. I finally decided on a cute black tank, jeans and stilettos. Now I was ready.

I went downstairs after asking poor Hugh a gazillion times about my outfit changes and started studying my speech. Then he asked if his shoes went with HIS outfit…what?? I finally turned and looked at him to see what on earth he was talking about, and he was wearing roller skates.....I kid you not! Pretty much just what I needed to make me lighten up for the evening and laugh my ass off. Sometimes I guess I just take myself too seriously. Thanx boo for always making me laugh, it’s exactly what I needed.

So we arrived at Nottingham’s 1st. Our annual group dinner is open to all GGR partners both male and female. After inspecting the room and making a few changes, it was time for a martini and to wait for the others to start arriving.

I was very excited to mingle and hear all about everyone’s 1st two days of the event. We didn’t have to wait long, everyone got there pretty early and the party started.
This year, I had a head table that consisted of 18 people including our guest speakers, all of the GGR host house and of course a few of my close friends.

Barb from Kingman Fruit Creations donated our party favors again this year for each guest which was a scrumptious chocolate dipped pretzel.
Thank you Barb! They were incredible!
https://www.kingmanfruitcreations.com/

After about an hour of eating dinner, it was time to start the evening festivities. Of course the PA system decided not to work, so Leah Dilbeck came up and got the crowd going while I patiently waited for the repair. Thank you Leah!

I started out by welcoming everyone and discussed how we are all our own cheerleaders and ambassadors for our sport. That we just don’t represent GGR, but our entire mountain biking community when we are out on the trails and asked everyone to continue to be great representatives showing respect and compassion to all trail users.

I thanked all of our volunteers and asked them to stand up to be recognized and acknowledged.
Huge shout out and thank you to Sarah Crawford for handling the GGR booth for the entire event and doing such a wonderful job! Thank you Sarah!

This being our 5th year was extra special. So much time goes in behind the scenes that no one ever sees for this event and the club in general.
So this year, I wanted to thank, recognize and acknowledge one of my key GGR leadership members who has guided this club from behind the scenes and handled much of the Big Bear events for a very long time.
Laura “Mega” Watts. Thank you Laura! What would I do without you???!!!

Next up was Derek from Bear Valley Bikes to discuss one of my favorite upcoming events the Grizzly 100! Hope to see you at the start line!! http://bbvrace.com/

Every year for this event, we give out 3 awards. Best Bad Ass Shredder, Best Come Back and Best GGR Spirit. The ride volunteers nominate and vote for the award recipients at the beginning of the night and present the awards themselves. This year’s winners:
Best Bad Ass Shredder: Jacque Scott
Best Come Back: Jessica Santora
Best GGR Spirit: Liz Kurtz
All of you ladies are amazing! Congrats!

Now we moved on to our three guest speakers of the evening:
Holly Cass from Summit Real Estate and President of Inland valley mountain bike association: http://www.everytrailleadstohome.com/
http://www.ivmtb.org/

Nona Varnado from Bicycle Culture Institute:
http://bicycleculture.org/

Gina Kelly: All Pro Bicycles:
https://allprobicycles.com/

In closing, I asked anyone to come up that had something to plug or wanted to make a comment. Heather Muehle came up to talk about the Rattler Race in Kingman, AZ, a favorite race of mine: https://www.bikereg.com/44085

A few others came up for lost and found items.

I then closed the evening out by thanking everyone, for without them, this event wouldn’t be possible.
Of course, there were two more people to acknowledge and thank who have just plain made life better for me, support my vision, are kind, and are just damn fun to ride and have adventures with. Thomas Rambacher and Hugh Warren.

I asked everyone again to show respect and compassion to all so we can make the world a better place.

Sunday Fawnskin & Rim Nordic!

By the time Sunday rolls around, everyone is exhausted from 3 days of riding and some of us 4 days, so unfortunately we get a lot of no shows, but still a good turn out with 34 riders for the XC day.
Today, riders had their choice of guided XC rides at Fawnskin or Enduro at Rim Nordic and Snow Valley.
I had Amy Rambacher and Tamara Napier take charge of the Enduro day for me. Bev from Rim Nordic provided lunch and handling registering with Snow Valley for GGR as well. Thank you Bev for always being the hostess with the mostess!
https://rimnordic.com/rim-nordic-bike-park

For the Fawnskin XC, Ali Hyde takes charge of this day every year for me.
We split up into Blue groups and Greenie 2 groups and made our way up the long fire road to head towards Hanna Flats camp ground. From there we split again until we got to the Grey’s Peak sign, then a group of us climbed to the peak and the remaining went down Grouts Bay. The Peak was incredible as always, just a brutal climb but completely worth it once you arrived at the top. Another epic day on the trails with friends.

I checked in with Tamara after our ride to ensure everything was OK and I wasn't needed back there. She reported all were having such a good time they weren't done riding. So I was thrilled to hear this!

Myself and Hugh decided to have lunch in town and meet Ali and Mike. What a wonderful morning and lovely lunch in Fawnskin. So much reflecting on the last 4 days. I was exhausted, thankful the event went as well as it did, yet quite sad it was over.

This year, I was lucky enough to stay a 5th day instead of rushing back home after 4 intense days, so after lunch, Hugh and I headed back to Big Bear to relax and chill. I was so very grateful not to make the 3 hour drive home and get to sleep in Monday.

My final day in Big Bear, we slept in, had breakfast and got the house in order. Then we headed to the lake, had a beautiful lunch and just enjoyed our time together. It was truly an epic week that I didn't want to end.

I needed this week in so many ways and I’m thankful and grateful for so many that always make this possible. I’d like to acknowledge them, tell them how much I appreciate them and are so very grateful for them volunteering their time and being part of this event.

I thank every single one of the ride volunteers, too many too name!
Thank you and huge appreciation to all of the following:
Ali Hyde
All Pro Bicycles
Amy & Thomas
Anne Yeoh
Annie Sam
Bear Valley Bikes
Bev from Rim Nordic
Bright Foods
Cammie Brinkman
Christina Turner
CORBA
Dawn Cook
Danielle Romero
Denis Meyers
Derek Hermon
Donna Busher
Gina Kelly
Heather Muehle
Holly Cass
Zoey Cass
Hugh Warren
Kathy Tebben
Kamala Slight
Kevin from Grizzly Cycles
Laura Watts
Lauren Rossen
Leah Dilbeck
Leigh Donovan/Ichoose Bikes
Liz & Jeanine
Maricela Janssen
Nona Varnado
Nottinghams
Samuel Kelly Brehm
Sarah Crawford
Skypark & Staff
Snow Summit staff
Snow Valley
Steve Messer
Susan Bowen
Tamara Napier
Tracy Jones
Vanessa Glotzbach
Wendi Hoagland

I hope all of you enjoyed this adventure and feel like you were right there with me.

Until the next round of epicness, please show each other and the universe respect and compassion every day. Tell the people in your life how important they are to you, make the effort to say so and pay them a visit, for we may never have that chance to see them again or tell them we love them.

I'd like to welcome Tamara Napier back. One of my closest friends who has been with GGR since its inception, a founding member as well as a leadership member and a gifted athlete and one bad ass shredder.
Someone who pretty much saved me from life.
Around the same time we lost Marybeth, we almost lost Tam as well. I'm so very thrilled and grateful she is back home and on her way to recovery. Please call her and say hello! She has a very long road ahead of her and needs our support and love so she can get on her beautiful NEW BIKE!
We love you Tam and I can't wait to ride with you again!! MWAH!

In closing, please enjoy all of the pictures and a beautiful poem my friend Graham wrote for Marybeth.

All my love, compassion and respect to you all! MWAH!

GGR Girl Wendy E

Marybeth,
Did the dolphins pause their raucous play,
On the sad day you passed away?
Or did the waves slow their pounding pace?
Your precious sharks cease to race?
The oceans shed a mournful tear,
Knowing well, you’re no longer here?
The kelp beds end their gentle sway,
On that dreadful Labor Day?

Thus it would seem, from the way we now feel.
You’ve left a wound that’s so hard to heal.
You’ll find us all starkly bereft,
A hole in our hearts, have you painfully left.
No more green beads on a St Patrick’s Day ride,
Or dive flippers, red high-tops worn inside.
Your joyous laugh will no longer ring out,
Life lived to the fullest, we have no doubt.
Your quirky lifestyle at times seemed out of line,
But we knew really, it was all very sublime.
Your liveliness is rather hard to forget;
It rubs off on the many, in life you have met.
Your freedom of spirit we all do admire,
As something to which we can try to aspire.
Your friendship we hold as something vastly dear;
Know that you’ll always seem constantly near.

We feel you would tell us not to despair,
But go on living our lives, without any care,
To fill our days with lots of unfettered mirth,
To celebrate the lifetime you had on this green Earth.
So we’ll strap on our dive tanks and leap into the sea,
And ride our bikes up hills, as fast as can be.
We’ll mount up our skis, carve down the steepest chute,
While nonchalantly presenting as amazingly cute.
We’ll look at our lives with such freshness anew,
Oh, and we’ll be rooting for the Patriots in February too!

Graham

GGR Partners with Bonk Breakers!

8/30/2018

I'm so thrilled to announce that GGR has partnered with Bonk Breakers! bonkbreaker.com/

I've been personally using these bars for a long time. I typically ride 30-45 miles every ride, so the lighter my pack is the better. These bars are small enough to fit in your jersey pocket yet they satisfy your hunger perfectly and don't upset my stomach. So needless to say I love this product and am stoked to bring it to our club.

"Bonk Breaker is Stoked to Fuel Girlz Gone Riding!
We are 100% committed to creating great-tasting products that are on the cutting edge of sports and active lifestyle nutrition. We pride ourselves on our ever-expanding lineup of the best tasting, non-GMO products that combine all-natural, real food ingredients. We couldn’t be more excited about joining forces with Girlz Gone Riding and serving as your official nutrition partner.
Here’s how you can make the most out of our exciting new partnership:

Looking for tips to power all your rides from prep to recovery? We’ve got you! For starters, here are the key players in our lineup:
Nutrition Bars:

4-7g of plant-based protein
180-210 calories
4:1 Carbohydrate to Protein ratio for optimal performance
0 sugar alcohol
10 great flavors

Nutrition + Bars:

11-13g of plant-based protein
200-250 calories
2:1 Carbohydrate to Protein ratio for meal replacement or post-workout recovery
0 sugar alcohol
3 great flavors

Energy Chews:
Our Chews are made with readily bio-available organic energy sources, are easy to eat and digest, and don’t stick to your teeth.

240mg of balanced electrolytes
160 calories
Non-GMO project verified
2 awesome flavors

Premium Protein Bars:

15g of pasture raised collagen and grass-fed whey protein
190-230 calories
4-7g sugar
0 sugar alcohol
Paleo Friendly
2 flavors available with a third coming soon!"

To get your GGR club discount, please go to your respective GGR Chapter page under the FILES tab for GGR's year round supporters.

GGR Girl Wendy E!

GGR'S Annual Women's Weekend in Big Bear 2018

8/15/2018

Kicking it off at Skypark for the annual GGR Women's Weekend in Big Bear 2018!

Day 2 at Snow Summit

3 days…..4 Bike Parks….100 women…..This was the 2018 GGR annual Women’s Weekend in Big Bear held August 10th-August 12th. An event that is open to all women mountain bikers. Registration closes at 100 women to keep the event intimate and manageable.
I warn you this is a long blog. With me in Big Bear for 4 days for this event, there is a lot to cover! I hope you enjoy the journey.

This year was by far the most successful women’s weekend to date. I saw the most smiles, heard the best feedback, saw a lot of new friendships being formed and even I myself received an enormous surprise!

Let me bring you behind the scenes of my favorite GGR event which is now 3 days instead of two.

Day one This event for me started on Thursday, August 9th, one day prior to the actual event.
According to the registration numbers, (we were at full capacity at 100 + riders. I cut it off at 100 riders to keep it intimate and manageable), I needed a few more volunteers for Sunday, so I juggled a few things around to make it work. One of these things was to have Tamara, one of my besties and an extremely talented athlete and rider, take my place at Rim Nordic/Intro to Enduro, and have me go to Fawnskin and lead one of the XC rides.

So, in order to do this, Tamara needed to learn the routes and pre-ride Rim Nordic as well as both of us pre-ride the DH runs at Snow Valley. This was more about giving me piece of mind knowing I was comfortable sending our ladies on these new runs, so we both really needed to ride the DH runs ourselves at Snow Valley. Snow Valley was actually closed on Thursday. Bev, that runs both Rim Nordic and Snow Valley took the day to actually shuttle Tamara and I, so we could pre-ride all the runs and the dual slalom. She took her 4-wheel drive on the steep, rugged fire road and shuttled us! Thank you Bev!

Tam and I did 3 runs at Snow Valley and decided only one section was a NO GO due to the poodle bush hanging over the trail which Amy Rambacher had sent us a text early that morning warning us about it and sure enough…we found it.

Next up was to pre-ride all 4 Enduro stages across the street at Rim Nordic. Heidi Kanayan, one of GGR’s coaches and pro DH rider, already pre-rode all the stages and shortened the climbing up to make it a more fun day for all attending. Knowing that I may not be able to participate in the Intro to Enduro day since we were shorthanded, I put Heidi in charge of the Enduro day to handle everything for me.

Now if you know me well, you know I’m a disaster when it comes to maps and directions, so Tam handled the maps with Bev, and her and I went to ride the 4 stages of Enduro. WHAT a blast we had! I had so much fun I was still trying to locate a volunteer who knew Fawnskin well enough to lead one of the XC rides, so I could still join the Enduro day.

Now it was time to head to Big Bear, pick up our house keys and get settled in. Leah Dilbeck, another GGR leadership team member, located the GGR host house for us. It was a big, beautiful house with everything we needed and was in riding distance to the lifts. Since we have our annual ride volunteer and pot luck dinner meeting on Friday night’s, we needed a house with a big enough great room to hold our 35 volunteers. Tam and I settled in, went to the store to pick up food and waited for Leah to get to the house.

Friday, Skypark: Official Day One of our annual women’s weekend:
This year was something new we were trying. In past year’s we have only offered a DH skills clinic on Friday at Snow Summit for a very limited number of riders. With how popular Skypark has become, and me myself loving it, I decided to eliminate the DH clinic and have an open day at Skypark. No guided rides, just a day to get together and enjoy the Skypark experience. Any rider wanting a guide, there were plenty of us!

I started the day by getting there early around 8:15am expecting to get the GGR booth up and running. Well, our IE chapter Director Jackie Reseigne who now works at Skypark already had the booth up and there was a team of girls getting things ready. We are a well-oiled machine for sure!

Girls were starting to arrive early. They were to check in at the GGR booth, get a GGR bike plate, then purchase their ticket or season pass at Skypark’s admission center. At the GGR booth there were bike tees for sale and Shilo from the Squeaky Wheel Bike Shop in Palmdale made these super, rad custom bows for our helmets! I now have one for both my XC and DH helmet.

Seeing that there were some Greenie riders that had never been to Skypark, I offered to take them up and lead them down the Green trail. I bailed out at the end since we decided to move the GGR booth to behind the pub after 10:30am, so I needed to be there to help.
Well, when I got to the bottom, our amazing volunteers already handled everything. I didn’t have to do anything but walk over to the new location which was busy with women checking in and talking up a storm on the runs they just did and which run they were going to ride next.

At 1pm, we all met in front of the tent for a group photo.

I spent the rest of the day between working the booth and squeezing in a few runs with friends. WHAT a blast! We started breaking down late afternoon, so our host house could get ready for the 35 volunteers coming over for the ride meeting and pot luck dinner.
Extra special thanks to Cammie Brinkman and Tracy Jones both being injured, not being able to ride, yet they still volunteered the entire weekend to run the GGR booth! Thank you! I can’t being to tell you how much help you both were!

Friday Evening Ride Volunteer and Pot Luck Dinner:
This has been a tradition every year. Our ride volunteers come over to the GGR host house for a pot luck dinner. After dinner, we discuss the 2 big days of the women’s weekend where all the volunteers are working the event. We review all the routes, trail etiquette, conduct on the trails and at the bike parks, safety, announcements, we discuss the awards we need to decide on, volunteer assignments, and more. Basically, we are prepping for everything coming up, socializing and a wee bit of party-ing!

Saturday Snow Summit Day:
This is always our busiest day with so much going on. Around 7am, I drove into the old tennis courts at Snow Summit where we are always stationed for the day every year. The 1st thing I saw was our GGR banner hanging over the ledge of someone’s condo. It immediately lifted my energy and got my spirits heightened for the crazy day ahead.
I started to unpack my car with everything GGR that could fit. One of the Snow Summit guys drove in and delivered 3 tables that we needed for our booth, so I didn’t have to drag them over 100 miles each way.
Cammie then drove up with the booth and everything else we needed.. Cammie was such a life saver all weekend. Her arm is in a cast (GGR purple of course!), and yet she didn’t cancel her reservations, she stayed for the event and volunteered all weekend. Thank you Cammie!
Tracy Jones also stayed almost the entire weekend while she was injured to volunteer. Thank you Tracy!

A few of the volunteers started showing up and UP the booth went. Kevin from Grizzly Cycles in Bakersfield drove in who was working the event for the 2nd year wrenching on our bikes all day, then Holly Cass from Snow Summit Real Estate Group drove her rig in and brought TONS of Starbucks coffee for everyone! And last but never least the Rambachers pulled in with their new rig…..(I think it needs a name!)

Riders started arriving. They were greeted at the booth by our friendly ladies helping check everyone in: Tracy Jones, Cammie Brinkman and Tamara Napier. Riders picked up their bike plates and received any info they needed on the different guided XC rides and DH runs that were going on. I was also walking around filming everyone for a Facebook live feed.

Around 9:15amish we got the day started. I welcomed everyone and described how the day and evening was going to work. We then took photos of all the ride volunteers, the chapter Directors and finally a big group photo.
Now it was time to get down to business and ride! We split up into groups: Intro to DH, DH Blue, DH Black Diamond, XC Greenie 2, XC Blue. I teamed up with Amy Rambacher and lead one of the XC Greenie 2 rides. We split the groups up since there are so many riders. We had 3 groups of just Greenie 2 riders. I named our group of 10 women the REBELS.

As we were getting ready to leave, I watched each group start to make their way to the lifts. It was a pretty amazing sight. I teared up remembering how far we have come from our 1st event to now and knowing how much fun these women were going to have, all the new connections they were going to make and so much more.

Amy and I took turns leading and sweeping our group. I of course also got ahead to take action shots of everyone. We did a few runs, then I had to come back and work the booth and relieve the volunteers. Amy kept the group going. We keep the booth open all day, so the girls can come down and chill as well as someone is always available to answer any questions.

Throughout the day we also had a handful of husbands that came up to our booth to get info for their newbie wives to join us. THAT was rad! They ran into our ladies on the trails and loved how friendly everyone was and wanted their wives to be a part of everything.

It was getting late in the day and it started to drizzle a bit. We needed to break the booth down and put everything into Sylvia’s van since she was taking everything for me to store at Desi’s. We started breaking down and then came the down pour. I heard many got stuck up on the mountain and the lifts were now closed. The day was done. We had to empty the water from the GGR tent, then pack it up.

Now it was time for our annual big group dinner which has now turned into a banquet it’s gotten so big.

Saturday Group Dinner at Nottingham’s:
We’ve been having our annual group dinner at Nottingham’s restaurant for a long time now. They put us in the bar upstairs which can handle up to 115 people, so it’s perfect for our big group. I get there just after 6pm to check the room set up, and of course have some champagne to take my nerves down a little and relax for the evening ahead.
Cammie and Lauren were already stationed at a small table ready to take cash for dinner, stamp hands and have a few cocktails! Barb from Kingman Fruit Creations was putting her amazing treats on every place setting as was Zoe, Holly’s daughter placing the flyers for Summit Real Estate Group.
I just started to go over my agenda for the evening, chat with Holly at my table and then start to mingle. The dinner buffer was ready to go at 6:30pm. I got to chat with riders about their experience so far while waiting in line.
After everyone was pretty much done eating, but def not done drinking….it was time for me to get everyone’s attention and start the evening agenda.

The weekend’s theme was BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER. The feedback I received in the last 2 days was off the charts positive from not only GGR club members but the bike parks and other riders AT the bike parks. So, I really didn’t need to say much or remind anyone to be kind, respectful and compassionate to each other, they already were. I thanked everyone for being such great ambassadors of our club and sport.

I reminded everyone of our club’s grassroots sponsors who offer discounts year-round to GGR members
Pedal Power
Topical Edge
Ryders Eyewear
Non-Dot Races
Gaerne Shoes
Apothecary Muse
Sacred Rides
H&S Bicycles
Michael’s Bicycles
Primal Wear
Ride Like a Ninja
Hero Kit
Grizzly 100

We also talked about upcoming events.

One of my favorite parts of our group dinner are the awards. Each year during this event at the group dinner, we give out 3 awards. This year’s winners were all incredible as they always are!
Best Bad Ass Bomber award: This went to Donna Newlin with an honorable mention going to Laura Ring. All the ride volunteers for these 2 ladies couldn’t have been more impressed by them.
Best Come Back: This was presented to Heidi Kanayan by Tamara. Heidi lead our Black Diamond DH ladies with Tamara as her sweep. Heidi had a bad crash the 1st part of the day, smashed her phone really bad, yet still continued to lead the ladies all day never quitting.
Best GGR Spirit: This was hands down an easy decision. Sarah Crawford! After starting the event with bad news, she came back and made the very best of her weekend. She is always positive, cheery and a great representative of GGR.

I then moved onto present our 4 guest speakers:
Derek Hermon: Owner Bear Valley Bikes: Discussed the Grizzle 100 Race & Grand Fondo he is putting on September 29th in Big Bear
Jackie Reseigne: GGR’s IE chapter Director and also marketing manager at Skypark talked about Skypark
The Mojave Chapter Leadership Team: Told us about their Route 66 Rattler race in Kingman, AZ October 20th
Holly Cass: Discussed her business Summit Real Estate Group, her racer daughter ZOE who races DH and riding bikes as a family

I then thanked everyone, ended the evening agenda and was ready for another drink, some more mingling and relaxing. Little did I know what was about to happen next…………

The Big Surprise: Liz Kurtz came up and took control of the podium. Now I was worried…what is she doing? Did I miss something? Is she going to behave herself? All I could do was hang back, trust Liz and hope for the best.

Now those who know Liz know that she doesn’t hold back and has zero filters....just part of her charm. She is also one of the best riders, best ride leaders and incredible human beings you will ever meet. She is the ultimate story teller and always makes everyone laugh…I mean belly role laugh….

She started reading off her phone asking everyone in the room questions like: Have you met new friends through GGR? Have you taken advantage of one of the many coaches available through GGR and so on….I still had no clue what was going on at this point except whatever it was, it was going to be big and I think it was about me….yikes….

She continued on and said more beautiful things about myself and the club that just brought me to tears. I was getting all verklempt!
Liz then told me and everyone in the room that she and everyone had a thank you gift for me. They were gifting me a vacation! Julie Betrand then comes up with this enormous check with my name on it for a bike vacation. Not just a bike vacation....A ROAM RETREAT! I still couldn’t really believe that this was for real. Then in the back of my mind…things started to click. Liz always asking me to get away for a Roam event, how awesome they are. Ash talking to me at the IMBA International Women’s Summit back in March and had invited me as well. I just have not been able to get away for personal reasons.

Then I realized these two sneaky women and a bunch of other club members had gotten together to make a Roam Retreat bike trip possible for me as a gift. WOW!
I truly was speechless. I couldn’t believe that not only so many people chipped in to fund a bike retreat for me, but that they kept it a secret from me! VERY impressive! I accepted the gift, cried and thanked everyone. It’s been a tough year and a half for me personally, so I’m grateful and thankful everyone thought of me this much to gift me something as insane as a Roam bike retreat! Thank you!

I stayed for a while after to catch up and chit chat with people, then I drove back to the GGR host house where everyone was wildly playing pool and table tennis. They played just as hard as they ride!

Sunday Fawnskin XC day/Rim Nordic and Snow Valley:
So, Sunday riders have 2 choices for organized events or they can do whatever they want. We were a few short of volunteers with the numbers that were registered for XC, so Tamara took my place at the Intro to Enduro event so I could lead one of the XC rides in Fawnskin ensuring the guided rides were fully supported.

We met at the usual spot, the fire station in the middle of Fawnskin. There was a Renaissance fair going on and AMTR also was meeting for a ride at the same location. Only a few ladies wanted to ride all the way to the peak, so Ali, I and Susan split the rest of the ladies up into smaller groups and we all rode Hanna Flats and Grouts Bay. Desi and Anne rode up to the peak.
I love this route except it’s just too incredibly short. However, I enjoy showing others and taking lots of pictures.

We had a nice small group of 10 in my group. Ali lead, I floated, and Ojai Ruth swept. Was a super fun time until it started to down pour. Yet I always love an adventure! It wasn’t a cold rain, so I was fine with it raining and it was at the end of the ride, just more concerned about the other riders still on the trail. I sent a bunch of riders ahead to get out of the rain and ride back to their cars. Teresa and I waited under shelter for Ojai Ruth, Carrie and Temra. Then we all rode back together. (Carrie had taken an earlier turn and was already at her car). I hadn’t heard back on the radio from Ali, she had taken a turn I didn’t know about that brought you to the road faster. So, she started riding back to check on us since she had not heard back from me either. This is what great ride leaders do.

Everyone seemed to be content yet tired from 3 days of riding and socializing. Most wanted to get going and make the long drive home. I had only done a short ride and was hungry, so Ali and I decided to have lunch/breakfast at the only restaurant in Fawnskin which serves the best breakfast evah!
We were also still waiting for riders from the other groups to get back. Sarah, Susan and Monique came into the restaurant shortly after.

It was still early enough that I thought on the long drive back I would stop off at Snow Valley and Rim Nordic and see if everyone was still riding. What timing! Just as I pulled in, everyone was wrapping up their last run at Snow Valley. Kathy Tebben took a bad crash on a jump, so I drove to the medic area to see what happened and how she was doing. OUCH it’s hard to watch someone after a crash! She was in pain for sure! Luckily, everything is just badly bruised.

I then went across the street to Rim Nordic and talked to Bev, Heidi, Tamara, Amy and Thomas to get the skinny on the day. Sounds like everyone had a wonderful time! They did 3 Enduro stages at Rim Nordic, then took the lifts and rode Snow Valley. WOW! What a fun day!

My job was now done. I had checked in on everyone, completed all the events, did my thank you’s and now it was time to make the long drive back to reality. I again was in tears. I didn’t want to leave. I really think I will be retiring in Big Bear I love it so much. The camaraderie, friendships made, all the amazing riding, catching up with friends, a bike retreat gifted to me from the club…memories that will last a life time. I don’t know if I can wait another year to do it all again…..

I have so many people to thank for making this 3-day event a success. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes for ANY GGR event. We make sure all rides and events are 100% supported by volunteers ensuring everyone always has a great experience. Our volunteers are what makes the experiences golden and riders wanting more.

Thank you!
I’d like to recognize and thank these people who made this event possible, I really can’t pull it off without you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to you all! Each of us contribute to making our women’s mountain biking community better, bigger, safer and louder!
Tamara Napier
Leah Dilbeck
Liz Kurtz
Jeanine Curcione
Amy Rambacher
Thomas Rambacher
Lloyd Sturdy
Heidi Kanayan
Ali Hyde
Bev and her team at Rim Nordic and Snow Valley
Laura Watts
Cammie Brinkman
Tracy Jones
Lauren Rossen
Jackie Reseigne
Susie Murphy
Holly Cass
Monique Sannes
Susan Mueller
Ojai Ruth
Dawn Cook
Lisa Land
Wendi Hoagland
Kamala Slight
Annie Sam
Donna Busher
Julie Warner
Julie Betrand
Beth Williams
Anne Yeoh
Vallyn Robinson
Sylvia Strehlo
Desi DeMesquita
Skypark
Nottingham’s Tavern
Snow Summit
Rim Nordic
Snow Valley
Bear Valley Bikes
Grizzly Cycles

I’d like to recognize two of our ride leaders for this event. I received the most positive feedback on these two specific ride leaders. ALL the ride leaders had wonderful feedback. However, I received many great compliments on these two leaders:
Laura Watts
Anne Yeoh
Ladies, well done! What a great job you did and I thank you for making the experiences for these women an outstanding one. You did us proud and I’m so very grateful to have you on our leadership team!

A very extra special thanks to the incredible people below and every single person who contributed to the Roam Bike Retreat. I thank each of you most sincerely. I was truly humbled and honored.
Roam Events
Ash Bocast
Andi Zolton
Liz Kurtz
Julie Betrand
Tamara Napier
Leah Dilbeck
The Rambachers

Until next time…I wish all of you muchness and epicness! Be your fabulous selves and spread the love. Let’s all continue the GGR mission of getting more women on bikes and ensuring they have a great experience every single time!

Mwah! GGR Girl Wendy E

GGR Announces 7th Chapter!

5/3/2018

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding, is so very excited and absolutely thrilled to announce our 7th chapter! We proudly present......drum roll please................ the OC chapter!
Heading up our new Orange County chapter is long time GGR leadership team member, close friend, certified coach and Pro Enduro rider Amy Rambacher!

Some HER-story on Amy:

"I started mountain biking in 2009 with my husband at the suggestion of a mutual friend based on the fact that we participated in numerous other extreme sports (snowboarding, white water kayaking, rock climbing, etc.). Before that, I think the last time I rode a bike was around the time I was 12. The learning curve was tough, figuring out many things (like shifting and braking) through trial and error until we found out about clinics. One of the first clinics I participated in was the Courageous Women of Dirt clinic with the Trail Angels at Irvine Lake, which was geared towards getting ladies racing at Over the Hump. The clinic motivated me to try racing so that year, 2012, I raced in my first mountain bike race at the OC OTH and I officially became hooked on mountain bike racing."

Since then, Amy has traveled the world racing the World Enduro Series and the California Enduro Series riding some of the gnarliest tracks in the world!

I first met Amy and her husband Thomas in Big Bear on a big group ride. I liked them both from the start and knew they would be a big part of our community once I figured out what that community looked like! Pre GGR, (in 2009 when I first met Amy and Thomas), I was still thinking about how to just meet more women to ride with, never dreaming about putting together a club and certainly not believing one day we'd turn into the largest club in the US with close to 3000 women and 7 chapters!

Over the years, I've had the great pleasure of training with Amy, racing on an endurance team with her, getting coached by her, having her be a ride leader for GGR, mentor and also being a good friend. Ladies, you are in very good hands with your new director Amy. She will show you leadership, empower you to step outside of your comfort zone and most of all ensure you have a great mountain biking experience every time with GGR.

Thomas, Amy's husband has volunteered many times over the years for GGR and is one of the most supportive people you will meet when it comes to growing the women's mountain biking community.

We are working on a time line to partner with SHARE, the OC IMBA chapter, train ride volunteers, and role out the 1st official club ride. Please stay tuned for that announcement and plan on joining us!

Let's all congratulate Amy on this new position and give her all of our support. Amy will continue GGR's mission of getting more women on bikes and ensuring women always have a great cycling experience.

If you are a woman mountain biker that rides in the OC (Orange County) please join the new OC Face Book page for all up to date news. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2101878766756160/. GGR is a free club. There are no membership dues and rides are posted both on the Facebook events page and the Google calendar on the GGR website: www.girlzgoneriding.com.

Until next time......here's some pretty rad pictures of Amy below.

So........what city will be GGR's next chapter??? How about yours??
Want to start your own GGR chapter? It's easier than you think! Just email me for details: [email protected]

GGR Girl Wendy E
Executive Director, Girlz Gone Riding
Director, LA Chapter

REI Signs on for 2nd year with GGR's Annual Rocktober Festival!

6/25/2017

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding is so very thrilled to announce that REI will be a sponsor for the 2nd year in a row at this year's 7th annual Rocktober Festival & CORBA membership drive, October 29th at beautiful Castaic Lake!
www.girlzgoneriding.com/exhibitors--sponsors.html.

REI will be having 3 booths at this year's festival. At the REI booths, Bike Techs will be available for minor repairs all throughout the day! They will also be bringing a fleet of their demo bikes for you take out on the trails and give them a try! Stop by one of their booths and see what REI is all about! This company supports women's cycling 100% and has been very generous to both GGR and CORBA!

One of the grand prizes this year for the big GGR raffle at the Rocktober festival will be a bike donated by REI!

REI also donates their community room to GGR for all Rocktober pre festivities such as stuffing goodie bags and early packet pick up. REI will also be donating all goodie bags again this year!

GGR is so honored to be part of REI's Force of Nature campaign! For more info, check it out here: www.rei.com/h/force-of-nature. And if you have not been to their host GGR retail store....GO CHECK IT OUT! It's in an outstanding location directly in the heart of Woodland Hills!
www.rei.com/stores/woodland-hills.html

The annual GGR Rocktober festival is a one day FREE mountain biking event October 29th at Castaic Lake. Registration will be open in late August and is cut off at 300 women. The event is open to ALL women of any club to attend! This is NOT a race, but a day to for women mountain bikers of all levels to gather and network, shop women's products, learn some new skills, ride fun trails and be part of something amazing! Beginners are welcomed with open arms!

There are skills clinics, guided rides, raffles, guest speakers, TONS of demo bikes, exhibitors and more! Want to exhibit or become a sponsor? How about bring your demo fleet???
Email us at [email protected]. It's super easy to become a sponsor or exhibit!

#REI
#forceofnature
#outdoorsports
#outreach
#advocacy
#GGR
#girlzgoneriding
#CORBAMTB
#CORBA
#morewomenonbikes
#womenscycling
#mountainbiking

The World's First Women's-Only Enduro Series (And the 7 Things You Need to Know About It)

6/12/2017

The Sturdy What?

Yeah, we've heard that question before, often accompanied by a quizzical...sometimes concerned look. The Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series is a mouthful, and the enduro race series behind the name is just as fun...and maybe even as ridiculous (in all the good ways) as you think it is.

In the Pacific Northwest, folks know every detail behind this iconic women's-only bike race in Seattle Washington; and now that the Sturdy Dirty is headed down the Pacific Coast to a trail near you (Snow Summit Resort!), here is what you need to know to get in on the party:

( All photos courtesy of the talented Collin Meagher and Chris McFarland - two of our biggest fans!)

1. The Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series is the first of its kind...and there is a kickass crew of ladies behind the scenes.
When the Sturdy Dirty Enduro started in Washington in 2012, it was the first women's-only enduro in the US - and one of only a handful of beginner friendly women's focused mtb races in the world. After three years of consecutive sell-out races, race promoters Katie, Ady, Angela, and Julie (ladies of the Sturdy B Racing team) were ready to take things to the next level. With the help of racers turned promoter Ash (of Roam Events) and Suzie (Snow Summit Resort), the Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series was born! With races in Seattle WA (June 17), Oakridge OR (Aug 19), and Big Bear CA (Oct 14), the Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series (SDES) is the very first women's-only enduro race series in the whole friggin' world.

2. The Sturdy Dirty was created specifically for BEGINNER racers.
Racing in general can be intimidating. Joining in on an often misunderstood race discipline like Enduro can be downright scary. The Sturdy B's fell in love with enduro racing, but recognized there were a lot of unknowns that kept other women from competing. What is an enduro? Are there any other women racing? Do I have to have an "enduro" bike? Do I have to have fancy gear? What if I can't keep up? These were all questions that came up often enough that the Sturdy B's decided it was time to make an event to help introduce beginner racers to Enduro in hopes that the Sturdy Dirty would be a stepping stone for ladies to compete in any enduro race.

3. Expert shredders will have a blast too!
We've had world-class pros race the Sturdy Dirty and the race consistently ranks favorite amongst expert riders. We make sure to kick it up a notch on expert/pro stages to get all the feels throughout the day.

4. The race course is created by women, for women.
The whole damn race is put on by women - why would the course selection be any different? We've got pros racing who can hit jumps with steezy style and flawlessly navigate the most technical terrain...but do we expect beginner racers to ride mandatory drops and sketchy jumps? Absolutely not. Each race category (Juniors, Beginner, Masters Beginner, Sport, Expert, Pro) will have an appropriate race course to ride that is hand-selected and pre-ridden by a crew of ladies to ensure everyone is safe, appropriately challenged, and having fun on course. We even have Red Tent Timing along to make sure the race timing is smooth as butter.

5. There are no secrets here! Racers will have plenty of opportunity to pre-ride and practice the course.
Racing a course blind is fun for some people...but we aren't those kind of people. Because we want racers to feel safe, confident, and relaxed on-course, we release the course details as soon as they are finalized so everyone has a chance to practice every nook and cranny of the race. We even have a mega fun pre-ride practice the day before the race! (Friday, Oct 13 in Big Bear)

6. There will be costumes, cheering, and a heaping dose of revelry.
If you aren't having fun at the Sturdy Dirty, you aren't doing it right.

Volunteers and fans alike are highly encouraged to show up fully decked out in costume. Aid Stations are themed and have hosted treats such as Hooters BBQ chicken wings, s'mores, a taco bar, and bacon. So. much. bacon.

Race promoters work hard to ensure the race is a welcoming experience for riders. Expect encouragement and cheering from fellow racers, friendly pre-stage chatter, and enough smiles and high fives to wear you out - but not so much that you can't hang with us at the After Party.

7. Boys (aka grown men) are welcome too!
Many of us enjoy the support of our male counterparts - and we encourage them to help in a variety of ways! We absolutely love our volunteers (many of whom are fellas), and a cheer squad of costume clad baritone voices is welcome when we need that extra bit of support to hammer out the last few hundred yards. If you can't race with 'em, support 'em! Right fellas?

_____________________________________________________

Ready to Sturdy Dirty? REGISTER HERE for the Big Bear race hosted by Snow Summit Resort or check out www.sturdydirty.com for more race details.

Race promoters Ady (rhymes with eighty), Julie, Suzie, and Ash will all be joining us at the GGR Women's Weekend at Big Bear July 29-31 to answer all your questions in person!

Have more immediate questions? E-mail [email protected] or call Ash at 530-521-8913

The Next Chapter.....Canyon USA

2/5/2017

And life changes yet again......

I'm so very thrilled to announce I have accepted a position with
Canyon Bikes USA: www.canyon.com/en/
reviews.mtbr.com/its-official-canyon-is-coming-to-america-in-2017
www.pinkbike.com/news/canyon-preparing-for-us-launch-2017.html

My official title is Team Manager Customer Service.

Canyon has been around for over 30 years. They are based out of Koblenz Germany and will be launching here in the US. I will be heading up customer service for the US effective March 1st. I'll be in Germany for most of March training, then when I come back I'll be moving to the OC to be close to the corporate offices where I will be assigned.

I will continue to run the GGR LA chapter (all other chapters have their own directors) and drive back monthly for the club rides. I will still stay on the CORBA board for now as well as get involved with SHARE, the IMBA chapter for the OC. I will not be opening a GGR chapter in the OC...I will continue to send women living in the OC to our sister club and shop Girls ride 2 and G2 Bikes.
http://www.g2bike.com/

This is an opportunity of a lifetime for me to do what I love & and have so much passion for. I'm so very excited to brand Canyon in the US and be a part of a great company that engineers incredible bikes. I will still be involved as much as I can in the communities as an advocate for women mountain bikers, trail advocacy and riding and racing with all of YOU!

I thank everyone for your constant support, believing in me, my vision of getting more women on bikes and keeping them riding! I thank my inner circle for keeping this quiet and giving me direction and support every step of this process. The adventure is just beginning!

I'm so excited to ride new trails in the OC! So those who live there give me a ring and let's ride!

I will be spending less time with CORBA, so if you ride the Santa Monica Mountains.....CORBA could use you! CORBA is looking for 2017 Board members! corbamtb.com.
For more information, you can email me at [email protected]

I hope all of you will follow me on this amazing journey. See you on the trails!

GGR Girl Wendy E

GGR 2016 Year in Review

12/28/2016

2016 marked a year not only in immense growth in the women's mountain biking movement and GGR, but was a true year in growth for my own adventures on the bike. I can't wait to see what 2017 brings!

Highlights!
GGR added 2 new chapters in 2016 bringing us to 6 chapters!:

Kern County Chapter! This brand new chapter is headed up by Tracy Jones! I had the pleasure of joining them for their 1st chapter ride on the Lehigh trail system in Tehacapi. WHAT a blast! If you live in the Kern County area, please go to their Face Book Page & check out their next all level, ladies only club ride! www.facebook.com/groups/1580508605578956/

Mojave Desert Chapter! I am especially excited for this new GGR chapter in AZ! I had the honor of being their guest for their annual Route 66 Rattler Race this past October and had an absolute blast! These girlz are gonna draw the ladies in! They are so much fun!

GGR Director Wendy Engelberg and Kern County Director Tracy Jones

Mojave Desert Chapter Leadership Team!

Specialized & Cynergy Cycles presents Specialized Expert ERA to Wendy Engelberg for 2016 season!

I had the absolute pleasure of being given the incredible opportunity of riding this machine for the 2016 season. A 2016 Specialized Expert ERA. I raced this bike XC, 6 and 12 hour endurance races, down hilled with it, raced enduro with it and pretty much rode the adventure out of it! This was one of THE best XC bikes I have ever ridden. I thank Specialized & Cynergy Cycles for such a generous gift and perfect bike for me! It was an honor to ride it!

Women's Only Weekend in Big Bear!

Probably my most favorite GGR event every year is the Women's Only Weekend in Big Bear hosted by GGR, Snow Summit, Bear Valley Bikes and Rim Nordic Bike Park. Every August, GGR puts on a no frills, all fun weekend of XC guided rides, DH guided runs, a free DH clinic, a big group dinner, XC in Fawnskin and an intro to Enduro racing. All put on by GGR volunteers! This year was the most intimate I think because we had an abundance of veteran ride leader volunteers that all stepped up to lead, sweep and float the rides and runs. We were able to do a beginner/intro to DH AND a free DH clinic for all levels that booked up in seconds!! We also had the best turn out ever for the intro to enduro day at Rim Nordic Bike park!
Big Bear is one of GGR's favorite hang outs in the summer and you will see our purple jersey's there all the time on both the XC trails and shredding the DH runs too!
Please visit our Big Bear host shop for all your biking needs when you are in town:
Bear Valley Bikes! bvbikes.com/.

Rocktober Festival!
The highlight every year for GGR is of course our annual Rocktober Festival. This year was different....new location....Castaic Lake and POURING rain. We still had well over 200 women that not only showed up but stayed the day. They rode around the lake, demo'd bikes, took a skills clinic and shopped at all the vendors. RST Suspension and REI were the title sponsors for this year's festival. BOTH companies are very involved in their communities and support women's mountain biking.

This year's community award went to:
The Squeaky Wheel Bike shop! www.facebook.com/groups/193733867452512/

The most improved rider for 2016 went to Anne Yeoh of the Inland Empire chapter!

Leigh Donovan was back again as head coach leading our skills clinic: ichoosebikes.com/

The date is set for the 2017 Rocktober Festival! October 8th at Castaic Lake! Registration opens August 18th. This is a FREE event for all women mountain bikers! Please enjoy some of my favorite pictures from this past festival! For the event blog, please check it out here: www.girlzgoneriding.com/blog/the-rainy-cold-6th-annual-rocktober-festival-oct-30th-2016-castaic-lake

WHATS up for 2017?

GGR is very excited for the upcoming year. Here are just a few of our events to join in on! Go to our Google Calendar for details: www.girlzgoneriding.com/calendar.html

January 8th Mojave Desert's Inaugural Club Ride
January 15th CORBA's RAM Ride & Pancake Breakfast at Michael's Bicycles in Newbury Park
January 15th: San Diego Chapter's Leadership Meeting 4pm! Wanna be a chapter leader?? Email me for more info: [email protected]
February 20th: Nutrition lecture at All Pro Bikes in Simi: 7pm given by Shannon Howell
Monthly club rides! Check out your chapter page for dates and trail heads
March 24th-25th: Leigh Donovan skills clinic at G2 Bikes/Girls Ride 2
April 20th-April 23rd: SEA OTTER! Come race or hang with us!
April 29th: R50 Charity Endurance Event
August: Date to be determined: GGR's Annual Women's Weekend in Big Bear
June 24th: Skills Clinic at Mt Pino's with Pro Enduro Rider & LIV Ambassador Amy Rambacher
September 30th: Share the Road Event Hosted By All Pro Bicycles: GGR will be hosting an aid station for riders
September 30th: Grizzly 100 in Big Bear: GGR members will be racing
October 8th: GGR Presents the 7th annual Rocktober Festival at Castaic Lake
GGR will be participants in the following races throughout the year: SOCAL Endurance, SOCAL Enduro, Pedalfest, Southridge USA, Kenda Cup, Grizzly 100
Please join the LA Chapter for the monthly CORBA board meetings the last Monday of every month at REI Woodland Hills

And now some thank you's! I could not do what I do without surrounding myself with amazing people. Thank you all for supporting women's cycling, my vision with GGR and women's mountain biking. It definetly takes a VILLAGE!

I would like to personally thank and recognize the following people and companies:
My GGR Directors and Leadership teams:
Jackie Reseigne, Susie Murphy, Ali Hyde, Tracy Jones, The ladies of Kingman, AZ, Desi, Anne, Tam, Sue H, Doris, Liz, Amy R, Lauren, Sylvia, Leah J, Leah D, Marybeth and everyone else who has volunteered to assist with guided rides and everything GGR.

CORBA: Thank you for supporting everything I do & allowing me to just RUN with it!
Specialized: Thank you for inviting our team to SBCU and providing me with the best bike on earth to race! Thank you for the hospitality and giving back!
SBCU: RAD RAD RAD! Thank you for opening up your doors to GGR!
Cynergy Cycles: Thank you for supporting my vision and my race season with the incredible ERA!
Spoke N Wheel: Thank you for always fixing my bikes in a jiffy and making me a priority!
Bear Valley Bikes: Thank you for always supporting GGR, our women's community and just being a great shop!
Michael's Bicycles: Always huge community supporters to both GGR members and CORBA! THANK YOU!
Ali Hyde: How much fun do we have??? Thank you for taking on the Director role in Big Bear for our chapter! Thank you for your friendship and guidance with cycling! O and my graphics absolutely rock!
Derek Hermon: Thanks for always supporting our women's mountain biking community!
Snow Summit: Thank you for hosting our annual women's weekend every August!
Rim Nordic Bike Park: Thank you for your generosity and always encouraging and opening up race cateogories for women over 50! YES YES YES!
Bev Brown: Your races are always so much fun, relaxing and inviting. Thank you for always accomodating us every August for our intro to enduro day!
Jason Ranoa/SoCal Endurance/SoCal Enduro Thank you so very much for encouraging myself and other women to race. I'm so very grateful to you for letting GGR have our booth for race support to assist other women racers! See you in January!
Race Pedalfest: This is where my crazy summer started.....this series changed everything for me and got my fitness to a new level....thank you for being so supportive of women's racing and mountain biking!
Jenson USA: Thank you for year 2 of providing our club members with the most awesome purple tee's and extra tubes!
REI: We at GGR are so stoked and proud to have REI on board! Thank you for the use of your community room ALL YEAR for both CORBA and GGR. The reusable goodie bags absolutely rocked as did your presense at the Rocktober Festival!
Liv: Every single Rocktober Festival Liv is always the 1st company to get on board, the 1st to get in their demo inventory and the 1st to ship us their product donations. Super nice ladies and so very easy to work with. No wonder their bikes are always taken 1st at our demo's!
Mountain Gems Handcrafter Jewelry: Thank you for providing GGR with our own line of jewlery! I'm wearing 4 pieces of it right now while I'm writing this blog!
RST Suspension: WHAT an amazing job you guys did with our trail work for the Rocktober festival this year, setting up the course and taking it down. Thank you so much and thank you for taking care of parking for our participants!
Dilbeck Realtors/Leah Dilbeck: Every year you top the previous year and do something incredible! Thank you for supporting our community and your donation! Thank you for being a part of our leadership team!
CLIF: Thank you for supplying our 2 major events each year with all the bars and hydration we need! Thank you for supporting women's mountain biking!
Kali Protectives, Ryders Eyewear, ZOIC clothing: I thank you so very much for supporting our events and also providing me personally with amazing product!
Jill Hamilton and Ride Petal Power: Thank you for providing me with the best chamois cream on earth! Also, it has been so incredible to have you as one of our vet ride volunteers at our events. Thank you for your generosity with your knowledge and helping us grow as riders!
Forze Tri: Thank you for the absolutely amazing coutour GGR socks! They were probably the biggest product hit this year with GGR! Your support and generosity is very much appreciated. The most comfortable socks on earth!
All our amazing trail males: YOU guys are fast, strong, fun and leave your ego's at the door. I'm so very grateful for your help on our big rides! Thank you!
G2 Bikes/Girls Ride 2/ AJ Sura: Our "sistah" club in the OC! I'm so thankful we share the same vision. Thank you for creating a safe haven for women cyclists and being a partner! I love sending women to Girls Ride 2!
Laura "MEGA" Watts: Thank you for your committee leadership every single year with the Rocktober Festival!
Amy and Thomas Rambacher: You both are always so supportive of everything I do and are such a blast to train and race with! Thank you for being just wonderful and generous people in my life and always encouraging me to race. I'm so very grateful and blessed to call you both my good friends.
Bobby Acuna: So much to say to you...I hope I have already let you know how you have impacted my life this past year in such a positive way. Thank you for being my training partner, thank you for scraping me off the ground, putting up with me when I'm completly out of control, racing with me, sessioning with me, letting me follow you on switchbacks, your endless patience, volunteering for GGR and just being a bestie not to mention the most fun adventure partner EVAH! Thank you.
Cosmo: Thank you for always offering direction with my riding and bikes!
Stephanie Wolf: Thank you for the incredible new website and managing it! We love it!
Photographers: Jesse Ettinger, Graham Martin, Dean Bradley, Pat Carrigan, Steve Clark: Thank you for capturing the moments and giving us so many wonderful memories!
Coaches: Leigh Donovan, Christine Hirst, Kris Gross, Sarah Viggers, Amy Rambacher: Ladies! Thank you so very much for volunteering your time to make sure our amazing women's community of mountain bikers are safer, more skilled riders! I love riding and being coached by all of you!!
My Inner Circle of Friends: Some of you are already mentioned here. You know who you are. YOU are the most important people in my life. You are family. You tell me the truth, watch my back, support my visions, tell me when I'm wrong and don't take any shit from me either. THANK YOU! I count on you, you are my breath, please don't stop! MWAH!

Until next year...........I thank you all for your support, cheering on my vision as well as our women's mountain biking community.
Please reach out to others and grab them to ride! Especially beginners! Always support, encourage and treat all with respect and compassion. It's the GGR way...... it's the only way.

Signing off for 2016....GGR Girl Wendy E!

Rocktober Festival 2017 Date Set!

11/23/2016

I'm very excited to announce that the 2017 GGR Rocktober festival is now booked for October 8th at Castaic Lake. We moved the date up a bit to hopefully prevent any chance of having the rides rained out.

GGR is so very thrilled and grateful to welcome back REI as a sponsor. REI was one of the 2016 festival main sponsors. They donated a bike, 250 goodie bags, a donation to CORBA and allowed GGR to use their community room for goodie bag stuffing and packet pick up. REI will have 3 booths at the 2017 Rocktober festival including demo bikes! REI supports all outdoor activities especially women's mountain biking. Go check out their super store in Woodland HIlls!

Please grab your friends and join in on
#optoutfriday: www.rei.com/opt-outside/pledge/create

This will be GGR's 7th Rocktober festival and 2nd year at Castaic Lake. Its been quite a ride! We now have 6 chapters and looking to add more out of state chapters in 2017. How do you get so many women riding? Make sure everyone always has a great experience every time! It's that simple.

OCTOBER 8TH! Please save the date. Registration will open August 18th. This is a free event for all participants. Want to be on the 2017 committee?
Want to exhibit at the festival or become a sponsor? Please email Wendy Engelberg for more information: [email protected]

The rainy, cold 6th annual Rocktober Festival. Oct 30th, 2016

10/30/2016

Photo credit Jesse Ettinger

Castaic Lake
Well, instead of an event write up…I decided to just say all the thank you’s I couldn’t say due to all the rain we received pretty much all day for this year’s festival. A plethora of pictures will be coming soon!

Where do I begin…I guess with THANK YOU! I know how rough it was at times today, especially this morning…yet 237 riders still showed up!

The rain came down pretty hard most of the morning. It’s difficult to make the morning commencement short when there are so many to acknowledge and thank that make GGR and the Rocktober festival a reality. I’m sorry I had to rush through things towards the end, please know how very grateful I am to all the volunteers, exhibitors and sponsors. Thank you!

I feel very strongly the right decision was made NOT to ride the trails. Myself and many others pour our heart and souls into this event every year, so this decision not to ride was not made lightly…Not only would we destroy the trails, it could have done a lot of damage to your bikes (clay soil sticks to everything) and it would have become dangerous. We respect the trails; we don’t ride in the mud and destroy the land.

Many of you made comments on how relaxed I was this year. It was because I had 55 extremely competent volunteers. Let the people around you do what they do best, and all will benefit in the end. I’d like to recognize and thank these people and companies.

Ride volunteers:
With a new location, we had to have a TON of pre rides. All of you made the effort to come out and learn the new trails and routes and many of you showed up at virtually every pre ride. Thank you for your commitment and dedication.

Doris Dunn: You absolutely ROCK! You handle all the exhibitors now every year and attended every pre ride that you were in town. I can’t do this without you! THANK YOU! You do an amazing job and I’m so very grateful you have become such a huge part of the festival.

RST Suspension:
Mike Dunn and Bobby Acuna: For the last month, RST Suspension was out at Castaic working on cleaning up the trails. This included pulling thorn bushes completely off the trails, (some of the single tracks were completely taken over by the thorn bushes), pulling falling trees, fixing holes, dealing with rattle snakes, doing EVERY pre ride, marking the course, and now…after everyone is gone…the event is over… because it’s still way too muddy… they STILL have to go back and pull all the signs and ribbons from the routes they worked so hard to put up.

I thank you both Mike & Bobby for believing in my vision, for supporting our women’s mountain biking community and for all your direction and wisdom as well. I count on the industry vets like yourselves to guide me and yet still be able to tell me the truth even when you know I don’t want to hear it, but need too. Thank you for that.

Also, participants…. if you were one of the 1st 100 riders to get into the park, RST paid for your parking.

This event could not have been pulled off without you both. Thank you. Respect, Grateful. Job EXTREMELY well done.
Please check out the fine products RST makes here: http://www.rst.com.tw/en/

Leah Jenson:
One of my besties who has believed in me for many, many, many years. You are the one I trust, you are the one who tells me how it is, gives me direction and handles the money. THANK YOU! Every year I count on you and you shine. I never, ever worry about the financial part of the event with you taking care of the raffles and putting the prizes together. Thank you!

Shilo Vigil/Bob Vigil/The Squeaky Wheel Bike Shop:
There was so much I wanted to say, but I had to rush it because of the downpour of rain. Shilo, what you did in the last Pedalfest race for me personally was astounding. Sacrificing your own race so I didn’t finish alone, knowing my spirit was destroyed, just showed me the kind of athlete, sportswoman and leader you truly are. I’m so very proud to have you as a fellow colleague in our amazing community. With having a baby, a business, managing a high school team, racing and leading women’s only rides…wow…YOU are a pillar in our community. I thank you for the amazing example and acknowledge your dedication.

Bob…. you have always given me great advice in such a relaxing, no big deal manner. Thank you for always being so friendly to me, our girlz and all that you contribute. Way to set an exemplary example of community. Congrats on winning the GGR community award this year! www.facebook.com/thesqueakywheelbikeshop/

Anne Yeoh:
Anne, I wish I could have spent some time on all of your accomplishments and I’m so sorry I couldn’t recognize you better with the rain pouring down on us. I’m so very, very proud of how much you have improved because of your dedication to making yourself a stronger, more fit, skilled rider. You always invite others on your rides and this shows you are all about community as well. Great job and congrats on winning the MOST IMPROVED RIDER this year!

Coaches:
Leigh, Christine, Kris, and Sarah: Ladies… I can’t thank you all enough for donating your day to us! Each of you is a part of GGR because of how special you are to our community. I’ve been coached by each of you, so I know 1st hand you are the best at what you do, I trust you…therefor I trust you with our women’s community. All the feedback I heard was CRAZY outstanding. Thank you for staying through the rain and making sure all these ladies had a great time and learned some valuable skills to make their riding more fun and safer.
Leigh Donovan! Thank you for taking charge and handling this part of the festival for me! It was thrilling seeing all the ladies with such big smiles on their faces coming back from the skills clinics! ichoosebikes.com

Liz Kurtz:
Thank you for rounding ladies up and taking them for a lake ride. You spontaneous manner is always such a refreshing charm that always seems to work for all! I thank you for your guidance and being such a supportive, strong woman. You are such an inspiration and wonderful support system to have at events. Your riding experience shines through and benefits us all Thank you!

Desi:
Every year you run check in/registration AND lead a ride! You just make it happen. Each year you practice your ride routes to make sure you know every single inch of the trail to ensure all of your riders have a great experience on your rides. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting this amount of energy into everything you do for our women’s mountain biking community!

Marybeth:
I know you stepped in today for sign in and didn’t even get to demo the bikes you wanted too when you have been looking for so long for the right bike. Thank you for making that sacrifice for the benefit of the event. Thank you always for your wisdom and direction you always give me when I need it.

Mega Watts:
Thank you for heading up our exhibitor/sponsorship committee EVERY year! Great job!

Exhibitor/sponsorship committee:
Thank you to all the volunteers who did just an amazing job getting exhibitors and product donations this year!

Sean and Janet Devlin:
Thank you for making the long drive to Castaic to Big Bear. You really made the best of things by keeping your tandem out and letting many of us give it a try. Janet…. I have a whole new respect for you! I cannot believe you DH on that bike! You both are an amazing team. I felt immediately the trust you must have in the captain with me riding stoker.

REI:
Jean and company…thank you for taking the chance this year on GGR! Having the bag stuffing and the early packet pick up at REI was a HUGE success! The support you have given us and CORBA has been incredible. Thank you for believing in GGR and supporting our women’s mountain biking community. www.rei.com

Forze Tri:
Sarah, you REALLY stepped up as an event sponsor with the absolutely beautiful GGR socks for the event. These socks are so incredibly comfortable and supportive! Thank you! www.forzetri.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

Jenson USA:
Thank you so very much for donating extra tubes and the incredible GGR purple tees! This is such a huge hit at the event and our ladies wear these ALL year round. Thank you for being such a great part of our women’s community! www.jensonusa.com

CORBA:
Thank you to my fellow board members Mark, Jen and Steve Messer for supporting EVERYTHING I do and always trying to make it better for me. Thank you Steve for your dedication and hard work 24/7. You are the true definition of community. corbamtb.com

Leah Dilbeck:
Leigh, thank you for your constant compassion, caring, willingness to step up and get it done. I thank you for your enormous donation to GGR and our women’s community. I’m so very bummed that all the kids today didn’t get to ride with you due to the rain. You are truly a remarkable women and I’m so very honored and proud to be associated with you. dilbeck.com

Mojave Desert Chapter:
Ladies! I’m so devastated you made the 5-hour drive one way and couldn’t ride the event. You DID have quite the adventure and great story to tell with a lost wallet, chasing robbers and a lost key! Thank you for your willingness to volunteer and your wonderful, happy smiles even though it poured on you!
I’m looking forward to seeing what you will do in your own community with our precious women riders! www.facebook.com/groups/1876612489234263/

AJ Sura/G2 Bikes/Girls Ride 2: AJ:
You are always so very kind and gracious to me. Thank you! You have become such an incredible success with your shop, your racing, your club. I’m so very proud to call you a friend and colleague. Thank you for always supporting GGR and opening up YOUR local community to OUR local community. Together we are growing our women’s cycling community and keeping women mountain biking. I’m so very proud to always send ladies your way when they live in your hood! Thank you for all that YOU do and helping with us with getting some incredible event sponsors and exhibitors this year! www.g2bike.com

Jose MTB!
Thank you for getting up so early and being at my house at 5am EVERY year! I thank you for the use of your truck, your willingness to just jump in and help wherever needed. Thank you!

Joyce Deprest:
Thank you for getting MBU at the event and having such a friendly, positive presence. Congrats on your 2017 CORBA board membership as well!

Everyone...........
Please check out all the event pictures from our amazing photographers!

To see ALL the photos from our amazing day : www.girlzgoneriding.com/photos-of-the-day

I thank each and every one of you who attended, volunteered, donated product and exhibited. Thank you for supporting our women’s mountain biking community and hearing our voices.
I thank you all for believing in my vision and making it a reality for our community.

Those of you that are closest to me, I especially thank you for your patience, your guidance, scraping me off the ground, removing cacti from me, handling me when I'm out of control and just being my support system and breath. You all know who you are. Luv you and I thank you.

Here are some upcoming events that I am racing and GGR is supporting:

November 5th: 12 hours of Temecula: GGR has a booth for race support all weekend. Wendy racing the 4 person team of: Amy Rambacher, Thomas Rambacher and Bobby Acuna: http://www.socalendurance.net/12--6-hours-of-temecula.html

November 10th:
Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica: Intro to Cycling 101: Open to newbie roadies and mountain biking women:
Wendy to present everything you need to know and have questions on as a beginner cyclist! https://www.facebook.com/events/1167109186713378/

November 13th:
Ladies only all level club ride: https://www.facebook.com/events/1757806374488307/

November 27th:
CORBA Ram Ride and Pancake Brunch: Sycamore Canyon/Host shop Michael’s Bicycles: https://www.facebook.com/events/142406946210578/

December 3rd:
Santa Claus Grand Prix: Tehachapi:
Wendy Racing co-ed team 6 hour: http://www.racepedalfest.com/events/2016-santa-claus-gran-prix/

December 17th:
GGR holiday ride and luncheon at Cheeseboro and Woodranch BBQ in Agoura Hills: https://www.facebook.com/events/1409533175727880/

Until the next adventure, go grab your bike, a bestie and ride!

MWAH!

GGR Girl Wendy E!

Jenson USA Supports Women's Cycling Community

10/22/2016

For the 2nd year in a row, Jenson USA will be a contributing sponsor at the Girlz Gone Riding annual Rocktober festival at Castaic Lake October 30th. GGR would like to acknowledge and graciously thank Jenson USA for all of their support and community generosity! These are the friendliest and most fun people around!

This year, Jenson USA is donating the GGR tees again! These tees were a HUGE hit at last year's festival so they had them made for us again!!!

The 1st 200 women to get to the Jenson USA booth, will receive a free GGR tee shirt! These tee's are totally rad! Make sure you get there early and get your GGR/Jenson tee!

A new bonus too! Castaic Lake tends to be a very thorny area. If you are not yet tubeless, Jenson USA also donated a bunch of tubes. The floaters of the rides will be carrying these extra tubes to assist anyone that happens to get a flat.

For all your biking needs, please visit the Jenson USA store or go online and shop: www.jensonusa.com

GGR Announces 6th Chapter in Beautiful Kingman, AZ!

10/17/2016

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding, is so very thrilled and proud to announce our 6th chapter! Please welcome the fabulous ladies of Kingman, AZ to the GGR family! This chapter will be known as the Mojave Desert chapter since it encompasses CA, AZ and NV.

I first got to meet some of these shredders at last year's Rocktober festival. They made the 5 hour drive to join in on the fun and discuss possibly having a GGR chapter. Well...its finally a reality! Kingman, AZ is now a GGR chapter!

Last week, I really got to see these ladies in action as well as experience their amazing community and enjoy the true beauty of the area.

Myself and my training partner were invited to their annual race that their local IMBA chapter puts on, CRATA: Colorado River Area Trail Alliance. The Route 66 Rattler race. Denise Barron, who sits on the CRATA board, was our guide and liaison for the trip. Be Tarino of Kingman Fruit Creations welcomed us with her gourmet killer fruit dipped in chocolate!

These ladies put on 1 incredible race! Denise worked her entire schedule around us so she could take us to pre ride the race course both Thursday and Friday. The community had been building a lot of these trails and just got done this summer. Countless volunteer hours this community put in making these trails! Just check out the incredible scenery we got to ride and race in!

One of the evening events was their packet pick up, pasta dinner and meet & greet with Tinker Juarez and ME!
Racers got to come get their goodie bags, race bibs, enter raffles and for $10 got a great pasta dinner and incredible deserts from Kingman Fruit Creations.

My host Specialized shop was: Bicycle Outfitters. Adolfo Rodriguez, owner, put up their booth, the Specialized booth and DJ'd some RAD rock n roll all night! Adolfo also took a ton of video logging the adventure! Then I got to take pictures with everyone, sign jerseys and talk about women's mountain biking!

I thank the community of Kingman, CRATA, Bicycle Outfitters, Denise Barron and all the volunteers for your hospitality, generosity, enthusiasm and making our visit one amazing adventure. The Route 66 Rattler Race is an XC race NOT to be missed!

Keep an eye out at all the bike shops in Kingman and the surrounding areas for GGR flyers. We will be asking the shops all around to host clinics such as suspension set up, flat repair and more. Maybe even a ride and pancake breakfast?? Do we have an amazing flap jack flipper at one of the shops??? I can smell the maple syrup now!

The 1st chapter ride will be announced soon! Please support our women's mountain biking communities and be part of this enormous movement to grow our incredible sport!

GGR's mission is to grow women's mountain biking and keep women cycling. We offer all level no drop rides, skills clinics, repair clinics, road trips and free membership! We are a non dues club and operate by all volunteers.

GGR is about community and club. This is why each chapter partners up with their local IMBA chapter. I'm so proud and excited that Kingman, a new favorite place of mine is now a GGR chapter!

If you are a female mountain biker and live in the Kingman, AZ and surrounding areas, please join up on the Face book page here: www.facebook.com/groups/1876612489234263/

Want to start your own chapter? It's easy! Contact me at [email protected]

GGR Girl Wendy E

RST North America gives back to their cycling community

10/12/2016

RST North America, a GGR Rocktober Festival lead sponsor, took time out of their day to work on the trails in Castaic Lake for the upcoming festival.

The Rocktober Festival is being held at beautiful Lake Castaic this year October 30th. One of the trails on the guided rides known as the "GRAPEVINE" trail, is everyone's favorite descent. However.......when not taken care of....this trail gets taken over by bushes that are so sharp, well...it leaves your legs burning and bloody!

RST went out to the trails today with their tools and removed and cut back all of these sharp, nasty bushes. Now we will not have to reroute the the guided rides to avoid this trail and riders can yet again enjoy this super fun descent!

I'd like to thank RST North America on behalf of everyone at GGR for putting on the muscles and giving back to your community! A special huge shout out and thank you to volunteers extraordinaire Mike Dunn and Bobby Acuna who have been such an enormous help with our pre rides and getting this handled. We are very grateful and appreciative! Thank you for your generosity and just getting it done!

Please check out RST products including their seat dropper and forks which you can purchase at your favorite bike shop.
www.rst.com.tw/en/

Rocktober Festival Guest Speakers! Tandemonium!

9/2/2016

GGR is so very thrilled to have Janet and Shaun Devlin of Big Bear come all the way to Castaic for the Rocktober Festival October 30th! They will be riding their tandem mountain bike and talking about this very unique discipline of riding! They will be speaking early in the afternoon!

Why we got started: Shaun and Janet were at such different riding levels. Shaun thought that if he got Janet to agree to a tandem, it would allow her to increase her experience and ride road/trails that on her single bike would have not been possible for some time and even possibly dangerous. Being the “Stoker” would allow her to learn more rapidly. More importantly, Shaun wanted her to ride with him so this would allow them to be together doing something really fun.

How we got started: We started with a used road tandem (Burley) we bought off Craigslist in 2010. We swapped out components as we got better and things started to break. In one year, we rode over 2000 miles. Shaun came home one afternoon with a YouTube video of a MTB Tandem and told Janet he had found a used Full Suspension MTB Ventana that two guys from the LA area were selling. The next day we bought it (2012). The Ventana – El Conquistador weighed 58lbs with 26 inch wheels. We came up to Big Bear and raced the US Cup Kenda series – we were hooked! We quickly realized the bike was too heavy and started to search for a lighter (carbon) tandem. We were still learning, but having a blast! We had early success and started riding more difficult trails within the California, Colorado and Utah.

Tandem biking – Captain/Stoker
Role of the Captain: The Captain manages the steering, breaking and guiding of the bike. This is the front seated person. Many years of motorcycling helped Shaun learn quickly how to guide and steer the longer wheel base.
Role of the Stoker: The stoker is “Power,” balance, provides traction when needed at the back and is all about anticipating what’s to come. On long trail rides/races acts as the key person to monitor hydration, provide fuel and most importantly keep the Captain calm. No, the Stoker is not allowed to put their feet up, or “Not peddle.”
Our Bike: We purchased a custom Calfee – Carbon Tetra 29’r / Hard Tail. The build took approximately 5 months and we were able to custom all components. It weighs 34lbs.

Visit their Face Book page here: www.facebook.com/tandemoniumbikes/?fref=ts

GGR Opens it's 5th chapter! Kern County!

8/29/2016

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding is so very excited to announce our 5th chapter! Please visit the new Kern County GGR chapter on their Face Book page here:
www.facebook.com/groups/1580508605578956/

Their 1st ladies only ride is scheduled for September 24th in Tehachapi! To sign up, please visit the event on their FB page here: www.facebook.com/events/1015840101860621/

The Kern County chapter is headed up by new GGR Director Tracy Jones! I had the pleasure of racing with Tracy at this year's Pedalfest in Castaic Lake. She is super fun, friendly and very supportive of other women cyclists! She will be a great asset to our new chapter!

Tracy Jones started mountain biking 2 years ago. During her first month of riding, she thought she could really ride and did some crazy things on the bike which resulted in her breaking her hip. After a long recovery period, Tracy was finally was able to get back to riding.

Now she is racing and actually winning! Tracy moved up to sport division and took the overall win at this year's Pedalfest! She hopes to keep improving too move up to Expert.

Tracy's background is in horse racing. "I used to exercise race horses. Professionally for about 15 years. Had many injuries in that sport, such as broken ribs, concussions and the one that ended my riding career was a severely broken arm which required the insertion of a titanium rod. In that profession, you must be very strong, and my arm never quite healed properly, so was not able to pursue my dream of becoming a jockey.

I've had several physical injuries that I am a miracle to be alive. About 12 years ago I had a brain hemorrhage. The doctor told me I should have died. However I am doing very well. Lost some control of speech, balance, and memory.

7 years ago doctors found a tumor in my brain. Not cancerous, thank goodness! Had radiation therapy on it and has not grown. Yeah!!

I've always been very shy. Since I started mountain biking I've made so many awesome friends and become part of a group that has made my life complete. Loving the sport and loving the community of fellow mountain bikers has changed my life. I can talk to people now and ... really.. am no longer shy!!

The women I've become friends with through mountain biking are life long!! I love them all!

Girlz Gone Riding has truly brought so many women into mountain biking that would never of even thought of trying it."

If you are interested in starting your own GGR chapter, please contact Wendy Engelberg at: [email protected]

Forze Socks Gets on board with the Rocktober Festival!

8/14/2016

GGR is so very excited to welcome Forze socks: forzetri.com to this year's Rocktober Festival October 30th at beautiful Castaic Lake, CA. (registration goes up August 31st, so keep an eye out for the announcement on www.girlzgoneriding.com)

Forze is now in production on these very special GGR socks just for this year's Rocktober Festival. EVERY attendee will receive a pair of these socks free! Forze will be a highlighted exhibitor this year. Visit their booth for the most comfortable cycling socks around! They will have lots to choose from for purchase.
Forze socks offer a comfortable, light compression. You can ride ALL day in these socks! Feel the Forze.....

GGR would also like to thank our sister club Girls Ride 2 out of G2 bikes in the OC for putting GGR and Forze together! www.g2bike.com/pages/girls-ride-2 If you live in the OC, please visit G2 Bikes for all your cycling needs and ladies only rides! www.g2bike.com

Another adventure outside the box.....SOCAL Endurance Weekend in Temecula

6/24/2016

Another new adventure on two wheels................
This is the start of a 3 day/4 night adventure with one of my besties and team mate, Bobby Acuna of RST Suspension. RST Suspension is one of the GGR Rocktober festival sponsors this year October 30th at Castaic Lake: www.rst.com.tw/en/
http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/2016-rocktober-info.html

Some herstory/history.........
About 4 months ago...March 8th to be exact....I reached out to an industry acquaintance (Bobby), that had exhibited in the past at GGR's annual Rocktober Festival through another company to see if they would like to be an exhibitor at this year's festival. Come to find out he was transitioning into a new position and now also had some free time to join some of our co ed rides and help with learning the trails at the new location for this year's festival, Castaic. Well, we immediately hit it off as riding buddies and friends. I found that when I rode with him, just to keep up while he was chatting with me was a challenge that kept producing PR'S every time I rode with him. ( PR= Personal Record: this is a term used on Strava, a cycling app for anyone that does not know: https://www.strava.com/).
THIS was a great thing! Riding with super fast riders can either break you or force you to step up and work harder. I chose the latter...I excepted the challenge and his direction. Little did I know what adventures I was about to get myself into!

Racing a few of the Pedalfest races in Castaic: http://www.racepedalfest.com/ an Enduro at Rim Nordic: http://rimnordic.com/2016-racing-schedule and a bunch of hammer rides...........I started to get faster. I am also on a new bike this year, a Specialized Expert ERA 2016. My confidence was rising not to mention the fun factor grew with my increased speed. We were joking around one night about entering the 6 hours of Temecula race/endurance event and how we should get a team together. Well, pretty much in the next 24 hours we were signed up for the 2 person team.

So let the adventure begin..........Thursday night..........
Jason, the race promoter of SoCal Endurance/Enduro: http://www.socalendurance.net/12--6-hours-of-temecula.html and general super great guy, racer, shredder, single speed crazy, promoter of women's sports, wife of an epic rider Heather, and much more, invited GGR to have a booth at the event as well. So now with all the GGR booth items, 4 bikes between us (xc & enduro bikes), food, tons of water and our personal things...we needed two cars for everything we were taking for the 3 days. (my 1st idea was to camp to save money, thank goodness we didn't because we would have had to rent a toy hauler with everything we had to bring!). So we packed up everything in the 2 cars to make the 3 hour drive to Temecula. The plan was to pre ride both courses on Friday, get the booth set up, then go get our hotel and relax for the remainder of the day/evening in preparation of the 6 hour event.

Friday:
On the road at 6:30am........
So running a wee bit late....yes...my fault....I just needed a wee bit more sleep.....5 more minutes right??? We were on the road around 6:30am to make the long drive to Temecula. We arrived at Vail Lake around 9:30am and went to greet Jason and find out the skinny. The course was already marked, so we broke out our XC bikes to pre ride the 6 hour endurance course. I am racing a Specialized 2016 Expert ERA and Bobby is racing a 2013 Specialized EPIC.

Now, the forecast for Temecula for the next 3 days was ugly...hot hot hot...triple digits....so we wanted to get pre riding done and rest up. We already had made a pact that if the heat got too bad, we would not risk our health and would just stop riding. We each set personal goals. I really wanted to go 3 laps, however, with the heat, I knew I would suffer a great deal so I wanted to be realistic and go for 2 laps while Bobby went for 3 laps. We were both there for the adventure....and that it was!
During the pre ride, we took our time and discussed lines, corners, descents, the gnarly climbs, everything I really needed to discuss and session we did. Everything we did on the pre ride was critical with how confident I rode during the actual event.

After pre riding the almost 9 mile course, it was time to switch to the big bikes, pads and pre ride the enduro. I rode my Canfield Balance...better known as Taylor. And Bobby rode his Rocky Mountain....of course known as Rocky. We started to ride up the long fire road to get to the 1st timed stage. About 3/4 of the way up, we ran into Jason on his ATV. Him and Bobby talked shop and Jason gave me some pointers on the top gnarly section. At this point, it was triple digits and I was feeling it big time. I felt like I was melting, I was dizzy and it just seemed like a truck hit me, the heat was so dry I could barely breathe. I didn't even know if I could finish the climb to get to the top, but of course didn't want to let Bobby down or tell him how badly I really felt, so I sucked it up and kept riding.

We climbed to the top and then it showed its ugly face.....the top section of the climb was pretty much straight up...Bobby rode up it. (yes..he's a beast). I just remember pushing my bike and trying to lift my own spirits thinking cool thoughts when I totally wanted to vomit and was fighting the tears..........I didn't want my new team mate to think I was a girlie girl who couldn't handle it when the going got tough.....and then..... he was just there. He walked back down the hill, took my bike, pushed it up the 1st steep climb to where his bike was. Then took both big bikes and pushed them both up to the very top. He was my hero and knight in shining armor at that moment. This is something I normally would never allow because I'm such a feminist and insist on sucking it up and doing things for myself. (I'm working on letting some of this go). This I welcomed. I couldn't have been more grateful that my friend did this for me. I never asked for help and I don't think we even said anything..... somehow he just knew.......I'd had enough and needed his help.

So now at the top, getting ready to ride the gnar. I put my pads on. We took a brief look at the top section and discussed the lines. At this point, I just wanted to get down the trail and didn't even care about sessioning...I was done....Bobby went 1st and went super slow so I could follow his lines. I dabbed my way through parts of it, then just walked other parts. I was so disappointed at this point because I knew if I couldn't session it, I couldn't race it and then of course I would beat myself up because I would feel like I failed. Another thing I'm working on getting over....we are all our own worst enemies I guess.

So we got through the first few trail sections and came back on the fire road. I told Bobby to keep going, I'm getting back on the fire road and riding back to the cars. It was over for me and I didn't want to prevent him from pre riding the rest of stage 1.
He got back to the cars right after I did. I was so discouraged and disappointed in myself at this point I really had nothing to say, I didn't want to look him in the face feeling I was letting him down. He worked really hard to get us both there so my disappointment in myself was pretty unbearable at the time. I was just glad to be done pre riding and wanted to get the GGR booth set up. It was time for me to change my tude and focus on a positive Saturday event and holding up my part of the team.
After we set up as much as we could and anchored everything down, we had some lunch and checked into our hotel and called it a night.

Saturday....Race day...The 6 hours of Temecula!
This was it....we left the hotel early to get to the race pits were the GGR booth was. Many were already there and we still had a lot to set up. We finished setting up and got checked in. Now it was getting real. Time to put on our race faces, get on our bikes and warm up. Since it was a mass start, Bobby being the Veteran racer and more skilled, faster rider was going to ride the 1st lap. This way when it was time for me to ride, the course would be much more cleared and spread out. With the heat, we had to be realistic & safe so we kept our lap goals at Bobby 3 laps and myself 2 laps.

I went to the start line with Bobby and kept spritzing him with cold water until it was time for me to get out of the way. I also had ice packs ready for his jersey to keep his core body temperature down. I was very excited for my friend, but also wondered how he was really feeling. I don't think he would let me know if he was ever nervous or uncomfortable until the end as to not freak me out as any good team leader would do.
I stood at the start line excited to watch him and the other hundreds of riders fly by. Jason counted down and everyone was off for a parade lap to spread riders out.

It didn't take long for the riders to get to the other side. I ran over to get more pictures and cheer on my team mate. He looked strong, focused and very intense as he always does when riding hard with a purpose. Now I was getting excited!

I estimated it would take him about 50 minutes and myself about an hour and 20 minutes per lap in the heat. (I was way off, took me an hour and 5 minutes!). He was able to ride up all the climbs, I was not. I had to run my bike up a few sections that were steep & gnarly, so that would significantly slow my time down. However, we already made our goals and it was all about the adventure today and living this amazing opportunity we were given. I had visualized the course over and over again the night before. I barely slept at all thinking about every inch of the course and making mental notes.

Well I was ready to take the baton from him. I was stoked to do my part of our team. He came in super strong yet looking very over heated. So I was immediately concerned and very worried for him but tried not to let him know that. I'm a worrier...there's nothing I can do about it...I just worry about the people in my life I care about. I also worry a great deal about myself in these situations and try to hide it as best I can. He shrugged it off like the pro, vet rider he is, focused on putting the baton quickly in my jersey and gave me some quick direction/instructions for my 1st lap.

I was off. I had to let my concerns for him go. He had an hour to cool off and I needed to focus. I had my music on just loud enough to relax me and make me feel committed yet I could still hear the riders around me. I also carried my radio on my pack so he could give me some encouraging words while I was riding which I desperately needed to hear.

I felt strong right away. I was relaxed and ready to tackle the 1st lap. The course was still super busy. I thought it would have thinned out more than it did, but there were still many riders all around me. I held my line and tried to move to the side when it was safe. I was feeling confident and focused until we got to Marine Hill. The day before we talked about which line to take and how to ride it. It was super loose, rocky and a wee bit steep at the top. I had already ridden it, but not with a bunch of riders all around me at the same time. So this was scary, but I held my line and let them ride around me. Wish I had done this later in the lap....

Moving on past the gate to a super sandy, steep section with a steep left hand switch back. I had to run my bike up it. When I got to the top I was like....O my god just running my bike in the heat was brutal! I took a few seconds to get my heart rate down and drink a few sips of water then jumped back on my bike and continued to just keep a steady pace throughout the lap.

The switchback climb was brutal. I had to push up this, but so did others, so when I saw this, I was like...OK...this is OK....others are struggling too. I always think it's just me that struggles.
The other enormous, steep climb I had to push up as well and just talked to the others that joined me for the push.
Now it was time to ride the flowey, super fun stuff. This is where I can fly, am the most confident and have a blast. That and the flats. We had ridden all of this the day before so I knew all my lines, where I could crank and where I needed to be a wee bit more conservative.

I then started another single track climb and here comes all the hammerheads. They were so aggressive and just would not wait for me to pull over. I held my line at 1st...then they kept saying passing so I felt I had no choice but to try and ride to the left side a bit. BIG mistake. I lost my balance, put out my left hand on what I thought was a small tree/bush and it ended up being cactus. It had to be the ONLY cactus on the entire course and sure enough...I found it. I bounced off it with my hand thank goodness because if I fell into it, I would have been on my way to the ER. Immediately I felt sharp pains in my left hand. I couldn't move it to use my front brake and could barely rest it on the handle bar. Geesh....really??? What a bonehead mistake I just made in the very 1st lap. Sooooo, I'm trying to grin and bear it and just kept pedaling trying to hold on. Then I got stopped. A rider was waving us to slow down because a girl was down. I radio'd in and told Bobby to let Jason know a girl was hurt and needed help. I briefly looked down at her and my heart just sank knowing the pain she was in and how hot it was. She was also covered in sand. I badly wanted to stop and just stay with her, but there were already a bunch of people there so I kept going. I had a mission and I really needed to get these cactus needles out of my hand if I was going to be able to use my front brake at all on lap 2.

I radio'd in and let Bobby know I was getting close. This way he knew to grab his bike and be at the transfer area for the hand off. I was still trying to ride as fast as I could in the last section holding on and feeling the cactus needles just going deeper in my hand.

I got into the pit area and just held my hand up telling him I had cactus needles in them and needed to see the medic right away. At this point I was nauseous, super over heated and shaking. He took my bike from me instead of leaving for the next lap. I've never seen Bobby worry. He is always so cool and calming. Probably because I can be a handful and he has to be chill to deal with my overwhelming self. He actually looked concerned, but I really didn't think too much about it except that it was odd that he looked worried. Guess I must have looked worse than I thought! I needed to focus on getting the cactus out and cooling down for the next lap. So onward I go.

Off he went for another lap. I went right to the medic. When she started to peel my glove off, many of the cactus needles came out with the glove. I thought I was going to vomit, then pass out, but was thrilled a lot of them came out. I knew I only had about 45 minutes or so until it was my turn to go again, and I needed time to get cool and relax, so I wanted this part over with already.
Well, there were no tweezers anywhere to be found. The needles looked like tiny hairs. How could something so tiny be so painful?? So another medic came by and they started taking duck tape to my hand to pull them out. Kind of like when you go to the salon and get waxed. They pretty much got all of them out. It felt like someone took sand paper to my hand. But amazingly it looked good. No blood and most important I could move it which meant I can now use my front brake again!

After cooling off, I went to the transfer area to wait for Bobby to ride through and hand me the baton. He looked over heated again but very relaxed. I was so stoked. I just needed to go 1 more lap and I was done. It was already triple digits, but we did have a bit of a breeze in some areas. I remember taking off and him yelling to me if I was OK and I was more than OK. I felt strong immediately and so excited knowing this was it. At this point, the riders were super spread out and I had TONS of room so I relaxed even more. I had a ton of fun on the 1st flowey section and kept a strong, steady pace going into the rest of the lap. I saw the cactus coming and moved my handle bars to the right. I walked the same climbs again, but had a lot more fun on the flowey sections because the other racers were so spread out it was not as intense and I could really enjoy the flow of the trails.
Now the last few miles I was really feeling the heat. I was thinking to myself...can I do another lap?? I know I'm reaching my goal..but what about another?? I kept thinking about it the last few miles. When I got closer to the transfer area, the heat was just coming at me like a furnace. It was hard to just breathe. I decided that was it. No more laps for me. I was done. Well....I think...I was still contemplating until the very last minute.

I came into the pit and Bobby was there waiting. I expected him to race out and he was totally chill, took my bike and we both agreed I was done at that point. He said this next lap for him he was just going to go out and enjoy the trail and ride. I could tell the heat was weighing heavy on him as well, but no way was he quitting at that point. I knew he would be OK even though I was concerned for him, I also know he is an absolute beast and would suck it up and finish another lap.
And that he did......we were both done. We finished 13th with a respective 5 laps and approximately 54 miles total in absolutely brutal conditions. We completed the adventure and met our goals. Now it was time to celebrate!

We decided to go to the Italian restaurant near our hotel. So we got all gussied up and started out with a favorite Chianti of mine.
We were having some great conversations about vino and ale. One of the Ale names mentioned during this conversation happened to attract the lovely couple next to us. We all ended up having a super evening of wine tasting, desert tasting and even the owners came over. It was truly a blast and a great way to celebrate our achievement.

Sunday...Enduro Day
One more day of racing at the Socal Enduro. This was an individual event, not a team event, so there was no need for me to race the Enduro. I really needed to session the top gnarly parts and it was just too hot for me to do so. Instead, Bobby decided to race it. He had only pre rode stage one, so he was racing the other 2 stages blind. Yikes...I have complete confidence in his skills...but it was again triple digits...even higher temps than Saturday...109 in the heat of the day and riders had to make this one grueling climb 3 times...so needless to say I was concerned and worried for my teammate and friend.

Some of the other girlz from GGR were also racing the enduro, so it was pretty cool seeing them at the GGR and Jensen booth after every stage. I had my cold water spritzer bottle and Sport Beans ready for everyone. Today I was the Booth Be-atch and was happy to help! Every stage the riders came back looking like they were suffering badly....I really felt for them. Such tough athletes all of them are. Bobby showed his strength, endurance and super happy, positive tude all throughout.

Well, the enduro was thankfully only 3 stages, so after the award ceremonies and the patches, we packed up the GGR booth and headed home. For competing both days, Bobby received an Iron Butt Warriors patch! Soooo awesome and he deserved it!

I had such an epic and amazing experience being part of a team, training for this event, racing the event and learning so much from my teammate. It was like having a personal coach a lot of the time. I can't wait to race this event again in November. This time with MUCH cooler temps so we can ride more laps!

I have to give recognition, kudos and enormous thanks to the following companies and people for all of their support and making this adventure just outstanding!

Jason and Heather Ranoa of So Cal Endurance/Enduro: http://www.socalendurance.net/
Thank you for inviting us and the opportunity for GGR to represent at the event all weekend. Thank you for always being so encouraging, positive and supportive as well as providing women mountain bikers wonderful opportunities at your events. Thank you!

Specialized bikes: https://www.specialized.com/us/en/
Cynergy Cycles: http://www.cynergycycles.com/
Thank you for providing me my Specialized ERA for 2016. This bike has completely moved my XC riding to a new, stronger, faster and more powerful level. It's changed everything for me. I've never wanted to ride and train so hard until I started riding the ERA. I'm having so much fun and my confidence has soared as an athlete because of this very special bike.

Jenson USA: http://www.jensonusa.com/ Thanks for being so much fun to have the GGR booth next too!

Zoic Clothing: http://zoic.com/ Thank you so very much for providing us with jerseys, shorts and socks! Loved them!

Kali Protectives: https://kaliprotectives.com/ My long time supporter. What would I do without you?? Thank you for the ultra protective helmets and pads!

Petal Power: http://www.petal-power.com/ I can't ride without you. Literally! The best chamois cream in the entire world! Thank goodness for the Joy Ride cream! Thank you! This cream allows me to ride for hours and hours and hours comfortably.

To all my friends for all your encouragement, support and being so concerned for me in the heat.

And lastly....Bobby Acuna... for being the best team leader, team mate and bestie ever. Thank you for absolutely everything! Bringing my riding to a new level, keeping me calm, and just handling everything. Thank you my friend. You are so freegin rad! I am so very grateful for you! You are truly a gift!

Until the next adventure..........challenge yourself.....ride with faster riders.......enter an event that is outside your comfort zone....and most importantly........grab a friend and experience the adventure together!

GGR welcomes new sponsor RST Suspension to Rocktober!

4/15/2016

GGR is so thrilled to announce and welcome RST Suspension as a 2016 Roctober Festival sponsor! RST will be paying the $11 parking fee for the 1st 100 cars that get to the Rocktober Festival first on October 30th at Castaic! The gates open at 7:15am, so I highly suggest getting there by 7am to get your comped entry fee from RST Tuning! www.RST.com

RST Suspension was established in 1972 as Dah Ken Industrial Co., Ltd. It was initially set up to produce car, motorcycle brakes and suspension components. It wasn't until 1990 that the company decided to focus on the production of front suspension forks for bicycles and the RST brand was born. With almost twenty years of experience and technical expertise in manufacturing suspension systems under its belt in other products, the company quickly established itself as a leader in the bicycle industry.

RST has produced bicycle products for nearly 30 years that has been speced by most bicycle manufacturers. The brand is being relaunched for the aftermarket in the US this year, to bring high performance suspension products at market friendly prices.

GGR would personally like to thank Mr. Mike Dunn, US Brand Manager for RST's sponsorship as well as Mike and Doris Dunn's help in learning the trail system in their area for the festival.

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