Siouxland has a secret the rest of the country doesn't know about. It's not exactly flat around here and that means one thing to some - mountain biking. KMEG 14 photojournalist Tom McConnell tells the story.
Coming here 4 years ago from Arizona, one of the countries best mountain bike areas, I was worried that my passion for riding my bikes in the dirt would go unrealized. The area would be too flat. The trails nonexistent. The opportunity to ride off road, simply not a option. I was wrong.
"Stone Park's 20 minutes. Head out there, do some riding, come back. Ponca here's only about one half hour away," says rider Rob Waite.
"Locally it's actually really good. A guy could get into it, learn a lot then travel around and learn a lot more, come back and it makes the trails just that much more fun," says rider Josh Orr.
"Biggest thing is just trying to find your groove wherever you're at and work with what you've got," says rider Javier "Javi" Lozano.
Okay, so there is good riding here. But what makes these guys so passionate about a bicycle and a dirt trail?
"Getting out, riding, friends, family, getting out there, seeing everything. Seeing the wildlife," says Orr.
"Once you get on the trail you feel like you're away from everything. It's you, the trail, whoever you're riding with and it's a lot of fun," says Waite. <Kevin pape - stone state park ranger>
"That's important to have people use the park so they become familiar with it and they grow attached to it and they become people that want to see and protect it and see it improved and another group that supports the park," says Stone State Park Ranger Kevin Pape.
If this sounds like fun, it is! if it looks challenging, it can be. If you feel like joining in, just ask one of these guys or visit a local bike shop.
"I don't know if i've ever met someone who mountain bikes that isn't easy to be around and easy to go out and enjoy a ride with," says Waite.
There are no egos here, only friends and nature.
