Many trail riders are what you might call ‘outdoor people’.
One of the greatest delights trail riders can have is going for a ride on wicked trails with best mates. And when I say best mates, I mean two-wheeled (of course), but also two-legged (human mates) and four-legged (trail dogs) mates.
I love riding trails with dogs.
My kelpie Zoe and I have been on many happy bike riding adventures.
Having a dog just makes life, and riding your bike, so much fun.
Dogs and bikes just go together so well.
- Who wouldn’t love to give it all up to cycle the world with your dog?
- Ruby the Trail dog is one of many trail dogs that I go to if I need a lift and seeing her out on natural singletrack with her MTB dad turns always makes me smile.
- There are always some great content, videos, products and artworks circulating for special events and days like US National Dog Day.
- I loved hearing the story of Xiaosa, the tiny intrepid Chinese dog that spontaneously joined a group of cycle tourists on their epic 20-day, 1,833km long trip and kept up with the 60kph pace for the whole time she was with them, outlasting some of the cyclists!
- Or the big-hearted project Riding for Rescues, a program where bike riders raise money to help, rescue and sponsor animals (many of them dogs) to get them out of high-kill shelters and be re-homed instead of being put down.
- My #bikes_CISTA Instagram project, celebrates people out and about on their bikes with their dogs. #Bikes_CISTA stands for Cycling Interspecies Team of Awesomeness. There is a lot more to this project, but essentially, my criteria for including a photo in this collection is to have at least one rider, one dog and one bike – and that the subjects are strangers.
A Dog’s Tale
Recently I got sent a link for A Dogs Tale which celebrates dogs and trail riders. It is in a similar vein to Paws and Wheels, but with a stronger narrative line from the POV of retired trail dog Raven.
This video has a mix of all kinds of shapes, sizes, colours, ages, locations and breeds. In this video we are introduced to:
- Raven (the narrator)
- Levi
- Lucy & Sid
- Driggs
- Nash
- Emmy
They are all adorable and make you want to get out on your bike on single track.
So many awesome bike riding trails, environments and moments.
Emmy’s tummy scrub at 6′ 55″ is such a great slo-mo shot! Just saying!
So do your mental health a favor … and check the video out.
The description for this video reads:
It all starts with the trail. The crunch of the dirt, the smell of a dewy morning ride, or the feeling of brushing away pebbles with a perfectly timed belly scrub.
These are the happy memories of a trail dog’s life well lived.
Raven is a 13-year-old retired trail dog from Squamish, British Columbia who’s spent countless days frolicking on loamy singletrack beneath towering spruces. Old age has slowed her down, and now Raven happily lies in the driveway, watching dog after dog, and their human, head for the hills.
Celebrating the joys of mountain biking through the eyes of the trail dog, Raven takes us from her driveway memories in BC to the high deserts of Utah, to freshly cut South African trails and back again.
We meet some of the feistiest, four-legged trail personalities along the way, who all enjoy the mountain bike world in their own way, just like us humans do, whether it’s hitting jump lines, lapping through the loam, or setting out to build new trail.