Deep in the wonderful landcape of Southern Utah, 40 miles northeast of Kanab, tucked between the Paunsaugunt Plateau and the Grand Staircase, is a place called Deer Springs Ranch. Here lot owners carve their own little spot into the vast landscape, guests stay in cabins while temporarily escaping modern life, and wildlife in many varieties live and pass through. And here was the beginning of MinerBiker. 9-1/2 years of early life were spent living at Deer Springs where my parents were the ranch managers. Raised on my mom’s homeschooling and good old-fashioned work and outdoor recreation, I owe who I am today to growing up where and how I did, and wouldn’t trade it for any other childhood. Days were spent working, horse riding, hiking, mountain biking, and exploring, while being wonderfully disconnected from much of the modern world, and being closer to and more coexistent with nature and the Earth than most people could even imagine being. My roots in adventuring and playing/working with heavy equipment trace back to those ranch days.
Once the ranch life was in the past, schooling and life/work esperience combined to point in the direction of mine engineering as a career path. It was while in college that mountain biking grew to become my predominant means of outdoor, human-powered adventuring, with hiking a close second. As a result of studying and then doing mining professionally, discovering and exploring abandoned mine sites naturally became a favorite type of adventure, often with the mountain bike being the means of getting to and through the mining areas.
Eight years post college graduation find that little ranch kid from southern Utah as the mine engineer at the Redmond Minerals underground salt mine in central Utah, married to the most wonderful lady and companion in life’s adventure, dad to two dogs who are even more adventurous than me, brand ambassador for Utah-based Fezzari Bicycles, and blessed to experience more of Utah and surrounding areas than I could have ever believed possible! One of the may things I love most about mountain biking is the broad spectrum it covers, and I enjoy pretty much all of it from bike parks and trail centers to fat biking and bikepacking. My very favorite adventures are the trails and routes I discover way off the beaten paths, far put in the middle of nowhere. that have probably seldom, if ever, seen a bicycle before! And if sharing my experiences in the gread outdoors motivates and inspires others to get out and experience it for themselves, what an incredible bonus that is!
Any activity or means that gets you outdoors and experiencing this beautiful Earth is a good thing, but there are very real benefits, from physical exercise to mental and emotional resetting, to getting out there under your own power, be it on foot or bicycle. Keep digging up rides and adventures in the great outdoors, under your own power is always the best!