BLACK DIAMOND -- You never know who's going to show up for a party, so when 26 riders arrived at the entrance to the Lake Sawyer mountain-bike trails, all dressed not to kill with helmets and other protective gear, most of us knew it was time to rock 'n' roll.

		MIKE KANE / P-I
	Jon Kennedy, volunteer director of Back Country Bicycle Trails Club, launches over a fallen tree on a ride for boot-camp graduates on the Lake Sawyer trails near Black Diamond.

The venue near this old coal-mining town boasted the most suitable acoustics: some rocky and rooty, technically intermediate routes that required slow and precise playing, and others soft and smooth, melodic paths that called for all-out jammin'.

Our merry band of Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club wheel-spinners was led by several phenomenal cyclists, at least two of them past or present competitive racers, and included

all fashion of rider, some young, some old, some guys, some girls, some fast, some slow.

Decked out in pads from his knuckles to his toes and looking a little like Mad Max was the skilled BBTC rider and full-time joker "Evil" Bob Dearen.

"I hate mountain-bike riding," he said with a wicked grin. "My wife makes me do something to get out of the house and I'm not allowed to go to bars and drink and smoke.

"Seriously, rides like this are great because it allows all the older and younger people to mingle, and you both learn. It's a chance to see some really good riders. It's also good for the really good riders because it slows them down and makes them remember what it's all about."

What it's all about is being outside in the deep green woods, breathing fresh air, challenging and pushing yourself to improve your bike-handling skills and just rollin'in the free world with fun and friendly people. This ride was billed by the club as a "Grad Ride" for past participants in the club's popular Boot Camp class, which teaches basic mountain-bike skills.

		MIKE KANE / P-I
	Breakdowns are all part of the fun: It just wouldn't be a bike ride without a broken chain.

I earned my diploma in October, so I showed up for the grad party a little bit uncertain. The BBTC is known for some ferociously strong and skilled riders in its membership, and pedal-pushers lacking the conditioning who show up on the fast-paced rides have been known to have their buns handed to them on a sprocket.

However, this ride was led by boot-camp boss Bob Hollander, who always set a "social" pace. And it was a boot-camp grad ride, so presumably most of the riders would not be mountain-bike heroes with legs and lungs like Lance Armstrong's.

However, a wide range of riders showed up, so we broke into two groups -- a fast team and slow team -- each with a designated leader and a "sweep" to make sure no riders were left behind. I got in with the slow team, and some of us turned out to be not-so-pokey, prompting team leader Carolyn Mayer, a multi-discipline bike racer, to rename us the "chill" team.

The Lake Sawyer trails are laid out in two networks -- neither of which goes very close to the lake, I'm told -- split by state Route 169, the main drag through Black Diamond.

The trails on the east side of the highway -- known as the Bridges -- are more challenging, technical routes that twist and turn and climb over roots and rocks and several narrow bridges built of two-by-fours.

		MIKE KANE / P-I
	Scott Stuart, center, fixes a bent derailleur hanger on Dave Cape's bike as Kevin Ryan, left, watches.

We rode the Bridges first, and they were all about bike-handling skills. You constantly have to weight your bike properly to make those tight turns and avoid the odd limb near the track. You must bunny-hop here and there over roots, logs and rocks, and you must know when to accelerate to make a short slippery rise or slow down to thread the needle between obstacles such as trees.

Five of us broke out in a pack at the head of the chill team, often bumping into the sweep of the fast team. I was fortunate -- or not -- to ride between a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old, and both kept up a surprisingly good pace, pulling me at times and pushing me at others.

And when we stopped for those bogged down ahead of us or to wait for those lagging I had a chance to chat with Mayer, who rides on the Speedy Beaver Racing team, an all-woman mountain-bike crew sponsored by the Bike Works shop in Lake Stevens. She races downhill and cross-country, also has raced cyclocross and, in the past couple of years, has broken two ribs and a hand.

"I have been a multisport enthusiast most of my life: soccer, running, snowboarding," she said. "Now all I do is bike. Sometimes I'll go snowboarding, but unless it's like a real pow-pow day, I'm riding my bike."

She and her husband own six bikes each. She's a great rider and it was a pleasure to watch her smooth handling skills.

"The racing gets me nervous, but it really is a social thing," she said. "I love it. It's addicting."

		MIKE KANE / P-I
	Led by Amy McGlothern, boot-camp grads and other BBTC members ride one of the Lake Sawyer trails.

It took us about an hour to finish the east trails, and although almost all of us had to stop periodically and walk the bikes over the more gnarly tread -- I'm told the better riders in the faster group cleared all the obstacles and bridges -- the five of us in the front of the chill pack finished with a strong kick.

We all regrouped at the trailhead before charging out to the "Toy Trail," one of the routes on the west side of the highway. Here Hollander introduced me to one of his prized boot-camp students, Vicki Rinehart of Sammamish. She took the boot camp so she could keep up with her twin 24-year-old daughters.

"They started riding and wanted me to ride with them," she explained. "I wanted to be able to get as good as they were. It's a lot of fun. They go a lot faster than this group."

She is now keeping up with them most of the time, but on a recent ride took a wicked tumble.

"I went over a log and just went down. I fell on my face. My face got all swollen," Rinehart said, adding with a laugh, "My daughter said, 'You always wanted to have Botox on your lips!' "

Rinehart says she enjoys mountain biking because it takes her somewhere else, on a couple levels: "You have to focus and you can't think about anything else. Any problems you might have go bye-bye."

Later I rode with one of the BBTC's stronger riders, Jimmy Bucher. He said the same thing: "It's my stress reliever."

It is great therapy, both physical and mental. But it's more than just an escape for me, and I suspect it is for Bucher and Rinehart as well. Riding a mountain bike well gives a person a terrific physical feeling, a sense of pure energy, free and breezy.

And the Toy Trail is a place where you really can capture that feeling. The tread is smooth, a lot less technical than the trails on the other side of the highway, with a bit of up and down, but mostly flat cruising runs through the woods, marked by regular stretches of tight curls and corners. You can get some steam up and really work the tread.

We broke into two groups and ripped it up, and later Bucher and I broke off and rode back to the highway due to commitments we both had elsewhere.

Before I left I got the chance to meet another superb rider, Kat Sweet, a former racer who competed on the pro downhill circuit and in the X Games and Gravity Games. She is now a youth bicycling coach for the Cascade Bicycle Club, and volunteers for a national group, Trips for Kids (tripsforkidsseattle.org), which takes city kids mountain biking.

Sweet was a competitive skier who took up mountain biking for cross-training, and then realized she liked wheels more than skis. She recommends bicycling as part of a healthy lifestyle for everyone, young and old, male or female.

"I just know how much bicycling has done for me in my life, and I want to pass that on to other people," she said. "It's social, with your friends, it's about fitness, keeping in shape, and pushing your limits, building your confidence.

"For me, I've never learned enough. I'm constantly trying to grow as a rider. It's been really rewarding working with the kids, putting them in a positive environment. You give people a couple tips and all of a sudden, biking is a whole new world for them."

 

Chain links

 

 

Black Diamond Bikes and Backcountry has maps to the nearby Lake Sawyer network of mountain-bike trails, and directions are a good idea for newcomers since these trails are so circuitous your internal compass will be spinning. The shop is right in town off state Route 169. See bdbikes.com.

 

 

Find out more about the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club and its rides, classes and trail-work parties at bbtc.org.