“Women of the Dirt” is designed for all ability levels and creates space for mountain bike riders who are women. Guides work with riders on closed trails to build skills and camaraderie. Events have been held throughout the summer, and a weekend camp takes place in September.
We learn more about the series from Jaclyn Walles, a Mt. Bachelor summer athlete and ambassador and Nora Beck, a participant of the workshops.
The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:
Jenn Chávez: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Jenn Chávez. A mountain bike riding series this summer at Mt. Bachelor in Bend is creating space for, as they put it, ladies who love to shred. The Women of the Dirt series is designed for female mountain bikers of all ability levels and provides coaching also by women and access to some of the mountain’s premier trails. To talk more about it, I’m joined by two riders who’ve been involved this year. Jaclyn Walles is a Mt. Bachelor summer athlete who’s been serving as a guide and Nora Beck is a winter athlete on the mountain and a participating writer. Jaclyn and Nora, welcome to the show and thank you for being here.
Jaclyn Walles: Thank you so much for having us.
Nora Beck: Yeah, thank you.
Chávez: Absolutely. So, Jaclyn, let’s start with you. What can you tell me about this Women of the Dirt series? What is it for the uninitiated?
Walles: Yeah. So Mt. Bachelor, which has traditionally been known as a winter skiing and snowboarding resort, also has a bike park ‒ lift service bike park ‒ that is open to anyone from Bend or not, to come and ride. And essentially this series is for women who are looking to either get into downhill mountain biking, which requires a little bit more skill and some different types of riding than just trail riding here in town, or also for women who are already up there riding downhill and just want to progress their skills.
But I feel like these trails are primarily ridden at Mt. Bachelor by males and it can be really scary and intimidating going up there for the first time or trying to improve your skills, feeling like there’s other people flying by you and not feeling like you can go your own pace. So this series just kind of encourages all women to come up for the first time or not for the first time, just come up again and really get to see these trails with other women who are super supportive and can offer, like you said, coaching and guiding and make it more of a safe place for them to then again come up on their own or with other friends after this series.
Chávez: And I have to say you talk about it being intimidating and people whizzing past you. I have not actually biked down a mountain before, but I definitely have had that experience biking in general. It’s like, whoo, whoo, on my left and right. So I totally get what you’re talking about. What do you love about mountain biking?
Walles: I think, first and foremost for me, I was a college athlete and played sports most of my life. And I think once you graduate college and if you don’t go professional in your sport, your career as an athlete just kind of feels like it’s over. And I discovered mountain biking and it was kind of a new sport for me, that I really fell in love with the challenge. It’s very difficult riding uphill, but then extremely rewarding and fun downhill. And it kind of just reawakened this competitive spirit in me that I thought I had lost as an adult trying to figure out, okay, what am I going to do now that I’m not an athlete anymore?
And secondly, I think going downhill on a bike is the closest you can feel to being a kid again. We all remember getting our first bike, learning how to ride a bike and just the feel of the wind in your face and going really fast and kind of being scared. And it really brings me back to that place of being just like a carefree kid, maybe putting myself in situations that I wouldn’t ordinarily as an adult, learning new things, trying new things. It’s just really special for me, a very therapeutic place to go out and get a workout. And then also have fun while doing that workout and it’s connected to me to some of my very best friends that I know will be in my life forever.
Chávez: And you know, you mentioned a little bit about how sometimes when you’re getting into something, it can be a little intimidating. What was your introduction into mountain biking like?
Walles: Yeah, it was a very male dominated entrance and I think that helped me excel because in order to keep, like I just had to keep up or I would get dropped and I would get lost. And so I felt this competitiveness of, I just have to keep up and do whatever I can. But I also felt like it wasn’t the most welcoming and I don’t feel like I was properly taught a lot of the basic skills. It was kind of a trial by fire, learn on your own. And it wasn’t until I found this group of women who were all riding that I kind of learned, hey, that’s not really what you’re supposed to do as a female. Your body position is different than what I was told.
And I think the biggest thing I’ve learned just from being around women in the sport, currently, is I think when you see a male… as a female, when you see another male do something that you’re like, I wonder if I can do that? It doesn’t really instill confidence in you, if that makes sense. I see a guy do it and I’m like, okay they did it, that’s great. But they’re probably better than me. They probably have been riding for longer than me. But when you see another female do a feature, I for some reason, it kind of gives me that confidence of, oh, I am like her, I can probably do this. And that’s what I’m seeing in these group environments, is women being inspired by riders just like them and at the same skill levels to try things that they might not otherwise have.
Chávez: Nora Beck, I want to turn to you. You’ve been involved with these rides as well. But first, what do you love about mountain biking? What made you want to start doing it?
Beck: I’ve always seen people going up there and riding their bikes around. And it seems so much fun, but there’s such a big hurdle, especially with mountain biking or any outdoor sports in general. It’s very expensive and especially as a woman trying to go do things, like Jaclyn kind of touched on, trying to do things on your own. It’s, you’re just trying to keep up, right? And that’s not fun. That’s not enjoyable. You’re just trying to almost prove your adequacy that you can hang with these other men and that’s not for everybody. A lot of people just want to go and have fun and progress on their own.
So when I saw these events were starting, I jumped all over it. I ride for the mountain in the winter ‒ for Mt. Bachelor in the winter ‒ and I asked our head of marketing, Lauren, I said, please, please, can I get in on this somehow? And she was kind enough to get me on a bike and to get me into that first one. And it’s just, I’m no stranger to the significance of women’s spaces, right? Because like I said, that drive to be as good as the guys, not a lot of, not all women have that. They look at that and they’re turned off by that idea. They’re like, oh, I don’t care. I don’t need to prove myself to them. I’m just gonna stay with my feet on the ground where it’s nice and safe, right.
Chávez: Right.
Beck: And so giving that space where it’s just hands off and the women can go and hype themselves up is really important.
Chávez: Yeah. And I mean, what has it been like for you so far participating in some of these rides this summer?
Beck: I mean, amazing. I only made it up to two of the women’s ride days but I was hooked immediately. I took my little lesson and immediately was like, this is all I wanna do for the rest of my summer. And by the second one that came around, I found myself with a group of five women who were at the top of Redline, which is like Mt. Bachelor’s premier jump trail. It’s kind of the big scary jumps and we all found ourselves going down it for the first time, which was incredible. And I think if I’d just gone by myself or with other friends that progression window would have taken a lot longer to get there.
Chávez: Jaclyn, back to you. You’ve been serving as a guide. What has that been like? And why do you enjoy being a guide and a coach for other women in mountain biking?
Walles: I think as you asked me previously what my introduction was like into the sport and I don’t think it was great. And so my wanting to guide and help other women is a) I want people who are looking to get into biking to have a better experience because I think it’s so important having a hobby, as an adult, especially as a female.
Chávez: Right.
Walles: And I really want to make sure that women, especially as we’re getting older and adults, it’s really scary trying something for the first time. I want to make sure that they have the best experience possible and they see that you can go at your own pace, like Nora said, you don’t have to keep up with the boys. You can find a group of women that are on the same page as you. I really just love helping women see how amazing biking is because it truly changed my life.
And b) selfishly, these environments, and every time I’ve gone to these events, the energy is so contagious. It’s so incredible, it’s hard to describe. You just walk away feeling just this joy and the sense of female community that I haven’t always had my whole life.
So I love guiding and I love helping women. But truly, I just want to soak up the energy and be involved with as many of these events as possible because I just leave feeling like a better version of myself, feeling like I want to be better. I want to help women. I just want to be involved in it as much as I can because I just see the progression. Nora is a perfect example. It was insane watching her ride for her second time ever on a bike. I could not believe it. And to be riding Redline in your first season is so impressive and she is a perfect example of what coming to these events can do for women, especially in a downhill environment where it can be really scary.
Chávez: And you know, I know that Redline Trail is pretty advanced, so super awesome job, Nora. And I think it’s going to be reserved exclusively for Women of the Dirt next week, I believe. Jaclyn, why do you think it matters that riders will get to try out this advanced trail while it’s closed down to other riders?
Walles: Yeah, that’s gonna be next Thursday, September 5th. Super, super excited. I think this is a huge shout out to Mt. Bachelor and everyone involved in making this happen because I know it’s not going to be potentially welcomed by a lot of people, especially males who really like riding that trail, that it’s closed to us. But that’s why it’s so incredible. It’s our biggest trail on the mountain and I think there isn’t really an in-between. There’s our Lava Flow Trail, which is great for beginners. It’s great for people looking to get into mountain biking. But then the jump ups from there, it’s really scary. You have Rattlesnake, which is very technical. You have all of these other trails working up to Redline that aren’t really a good in-between. There’s no good progression trail.
And I think that a lot of women, I joke and I say that when it comes to doing these trails and doing these tricks and stuff, that men don’t always have the skill level to ride these trails, but they don’t have fear, so they do it. Whereas the women a lot of times have the skill level, but they’re scared. And I think going onto this trail with them, with only women, there’s no intimidation from men buzzing by you. Even women, there’s some really fast women that ride that trail, just anyone, you don’t have to worry about looking behind you and making sure you’re not stopping on the trail, which can be really dangerous. It just allows us to walk the trail.
Even for someone who’s at a beginner level, they can see what it looks like instead of just like, oh, Redline, it’s so scary, just have this idea in their head that they can’t do it. They can just look at it and see what they have to work up to and that way, this season or next season, they know exactly what they need to do to get to a place to ride that in the future. And I think that’s what’s most important. It isn’t just this trail that they have never seen, they only know what they’ve heard from others and a lot of times it can be described as really scary and mandatory and drops and rock gardens and all of that stuff.
Looking at it I think it puts it in a perspective of, I can do that. I know I can do it now that I’ve seen it, but I have some work to do and I think it’s going to… A lot of these features, there’s no walk arounds, there’s no optional go arounds for some of the things that are mandatory, and just being able to look at it for the first time or for a couple of times, rolling up to it, maybe just sessioning it, which means just walking up and doing it a few times will give these women the confidence to be able to do it top to bottom, to ride the trail without having to stop or get off their bike. And that’s just one day that we’re spending doing this to where now for the rest of their life, they can go to Redline and ride it without being scared or having to stop and that’s massive.
Chávez: Well, this sounds awesome and I’m just so jazzed to talk to both of you. Thank you, Jaclyn and Nora for joining us to tell us more about this.
Walles: Thank you so much and come ride with us sometime.
Chávez: Jaclyn Walles is a Mt. Bachelor summer athlete and a guide and Nora Beck is a winter athlete and a participating rider in the Women of the Dirt series on Mt. Bachelor.
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