Old "About" Page

I'm currently in the process of revamping the "About" page to more accurately reflect what this site is all about. Greg Rides Trails has changed over time, and it needs a page that better describes it's current path. I wanted to save the content of the old page for posterity's sake, so here it is in it's entirety:

Hey, my name is Greg Heil, and I ride mountain bikes.

I first picked up mountain biking back in the fall of 2005. I was taught the ways of the force (sorry, just watched Star Wars Ep. IV last night.  Classic!) at Levis Mounds in Central Wisconsin by an old master who has been riding bikes longer than I've been alive.  He's over 30 years older than me, and can still kick my butt if we aren't going downhill. I started out riding an archaic, completely rigid steel frame Giant Iguana.  While sometimes it stunk not having any suspension whatsoever (especially since I like going down gnarly hills FAST), it taught me some great bike handling skills really quickly.

My love of the sport steadily grew over the years, and I moved out to Montana after high school to do some Bible school (and to ski powder, my first love).  After riding only a few weeks in Montana that fall, I quickly decided that if I was going to survive the break neck speeds that I loved to descend the mountains at, I was going to have to buy something with some suspension.  In March '08, I got a screaming deal on a 2007 Jamis Dakar XLT with 5.5" of suspension front and back.  I was all ready to go with my  new all-mountain machine.  That summer I worked in Colorado, and rode some of the most kick-butt singletrack of my life while down there.

Moved back to Montana that fall, rode more kick-butt singletrack, and then to Georgia at the end of that year, where I currently reside with my beautiful wife.  God has blessed me with the opportunity to ride many trails all across the nation during my travels (currently 124 and counting) (click here to see the master list of all the trails I've ever ridden).

Recently, I have enjoyed spending time on, and contributing information to, the best mountain bike site on the internet, Singletracks.com.  I contribute information under the screen name "Goo," and am currently the number one content contributer on the site.

About The Site

I decided to launch this new blog to continue to give myself a creative outlet, but to attempt to do so in a more professional and thought provoking way.  By professional, I mean staying relatively on topic, and putting thought into what I write and which pictures I post, and not just posting random drivel whenever I'm bored. By thought provoking, I  mean that hopefully some of what I write will have more meaning behind it than "we went here, and then we rode this trail, and I crashed on that rock."  I would like to spend more time talking about the motivations we as human beings have behind the things we do, like riding mountain bikes.  We'll see how it goes.

So check back often, enjoy the ride, and be sure to "follow" my blog if you're a blogger.com person, or scroll down to the bottom and subscribe to the feed with one of the many feed readers. I look forward to reading your comments!

-Greg