Saturday, October 17, 2009

This week I finished a Cornell Outdoor Education experience and I highly recommend COE for anyone interested in having fun outdoors or at least for anyone interested in getting outside of Sage Hall once a week during the semester. My COE experience was a 5-week mountain biking class that included tours of Shindagin Hollow and Hammond Hill, two of Ithaca`s best sets of well-maintained mountain biking trails. Shindagin Hollow is actually rated nationally as one of the best mountain biking trails in the Northeast. But, if you are interested in learning the local trails near Cornell, then this class is a great way to do just that as well as pick up a few technical tips on trail navigation, group riding and bike maintenance along the way.


Cornell Outdoor Education offers a ton of classes including mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, caving and all other types of myriad activities for having fun outside. I decided to take the mountain biking class this semester because this summer I spent a small fortune on a new mountain bike and wanted to make sure that I rode at least a dozen or so times before the riding season ended. In this class, we rode once a week on Fridays from about 1pm to 6pm. It was really a lot of fun and the instructors were not only great riders but were also committed to the entire group`s learning and riding development. There are also other sections of the class that met during alternative times during the week to give everyone an option of finding a class that worked best with their schedules.


The class ranged from those who had never before been mountain biking to those who have pretty much been riding our whole lives. I grew up riding bikes and have just always found cycling very enjoyable. When I was younger, I rode my bike back and forth to elementary school and started BMX riding and freestyle not too long after. I remember getting a Diamondback Viper for Christmas when I was in the 5th grade and I rode that bike until I was a freshman in high school. High school was a time was the cool kids were either getting rides from upper classman or starting in junior year, began driving ourselves. So I hung my bike up until college when my Dad bought me a beach cruiser with a wire basket on the front.

Thinking back, I probably looked like Pee-Wee Herman but that bike was efficient for getting around the campus and community of my rural college and it was also a lot of fun to ride. I started mountain biking in grad school when I first moved to Illinois in 1999 and have been mountain biking ever since. It`s a great sport one that I recommend for adrenaline junkies and for those who want to blend cardio exercise with technical, obstacle-based maneuvering. In other words, mountain biking is a physical and mental activity and can pretty much be done year-round. Once it gets too cold, I tend to put the bike away for a few months and go back to the gym, but at the end of the day it`s a nice complement to any exercise program.


But overall, the COE Mountain Biking class was awesome and I think getting outdoors, especially in Ithaca, is an important part of living here. It is so beautiful in Ithaca and being outdoors is such a great way to enjoy the seasons around here. If you are current student at Cornell, take a COE course. If you are a prospective student, consider Cornell Outdoor Education as just another thing that makes Cornell special and that hopefully gives you another reason to come to the Johnson School. There is a lot to love about Johnson and after your first year, you can begin to explore what makes Johnson special beyond the walls of Sage Hall.