This story is the first installment in our five-part series examining the intersection of climate change and mountain biking. In it, Bike senior writer Matt Coté explores how climate change is affecting the places and people of our sport, and likewise turns the lens on ourselves as a contributing factor in one of the greatest challenges of our time.
It’s fall in Colorado, and the last days of September are playing out in uncanny heat. Staging out of the 6,500-foot-high city of Durango—planted at the foot of the San Juan Mountains—the warm air is especially handy for me. I traveled from British Columbia at the fading edge of the alpine season worried I’d get shut down by snow. Instead, the leaves are just now peaking in the Animas River Valley, and I’m sweating in my lightest jersey. The weather’s a couple weeks behind schedule, which makes the riding all time.
Nichole Baker’s blinding smile soaks up these bonus days the way Superman absorbs his powers from the sun. A small but powerful brunette with stoke three times her size, she leads me down the Dutch Creek trail in a pumping and weaving craze. It’s as though she’s trying to get it all in while she can, feel every nuance of the ground with the greatest of intimacy. For her, it’s not just a matter of the season’s end, she’s not sure how many more years trails like this one have.
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From Bike Mag
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