The other day my fiance, Rodrigo, told me he wanted us to do something romantic this week. My first thought with him was eating, of course, probably at a nicer restaurant, and then probably a bar. I was hoping though maybe the romantic night would include something like stargazing up at Red Rock Canyon. Either way, we don’t really do “romantic” much so I was excited.

I was planning on going straight from work to his house. I had packed numerous outfits to try to be prepared because he hadn’t told me where we going or what we were doing. Then he texts me and asks if I had brought athletic clothes. Umm no? He had said romantic, haha, but already I liked where this was going. I went home after work, grabbed an outfit to get sweaty in and our date began.

We grabbed something light to eat at To See Roll (that place has some bomb sushi bowls). We love this place because it’s a healthier and quick option. Make sure to get one of their loyalty cards when you go. Then I was completely shocked when we pulled up to a bike shop after (Giant Las Vegas). Last time I took Rodrigo biking, last summer in Chicago, he had asked half way through if we could go back to the hotel to nap, haha. We were renting mountain bikes and again I was shocked when he started having a full on conversation about the bike paths up near Red Rock Canyon because I knew he had known nothing about that, which means he had been doing some research. He put in a lot of effort to plan this and that really meant a lot to me, plus mountain biking was something new for both of us.

Mountain bikes are no joke. I had a woman’s small bike and it was massive. It had a lot of stuff on it that I knew nothing about, but I’ve been riding a bike since I was five so how hard could it be? The salesman pumped up our tires according to each of our weights (I didn’t even know that was a thing) and gave us a ton of tips for our ride. He gave us helmets (very important) and told us about this app, MTB Project, which I promptly downloaded. It shows you all the bike trails in America and gives a plethora of details about each trail. I figured that would be useful for us since we were going to an area we weren’t familiar with.

We were trying to ride during sunset so we stopped at Wal-mart to get some cheap headlights for when it got dark and lots of water. We drove up to Cottonwood Valley. You can get there by taking Blue Diamond Road West then getting on the 160. We parked in the lot that had the trail Rodrigo wanted to go to. There were other cars there and other mountain bikers pulled up, while we were unloading our bikes. We were trying to ride Late Night Trailhead, but later realized we were on Beginner Loop the whole time. I’m in the front at the start and of course, it begins with an uphill climb. The trail was pretty easy to follow. I’m trying to dodge big rocks in front of me, while also trying to evade cacti on both sides of me. I was feeling so thankful for the helmet and actually wishing I had more protection, all the while thinking about how bad a fall into one of those big cacti would be.

Like half a mile in, I pause. I definitely had underestimated how hard mountain biking is. I was sweating and my head was pounding. I felt like my butt was already sore. Thankfully, Rodrigo was in the same boat I was, but it got easier. The loop wasn’t all uphill and during the downhill parts, it felt so nice to just be cruising and enjoying the desert landscape. It was peaceful – you couldn’t hear any cars from the road and while there were a couple bikers who passed us, for the most part, we seemed to have the trail to ourselves. There was even one area where there were rabbits jumping along on both sides of us. My mistake was taking my eyes off the trail for too long to watch them jumping along and my front tire hit a big rock wrong and I couldn’t correct it in time. Since I knew I was falling, I was luckily able to catch myself and landed on my feet with only the bike hitting the ground. I got back up and we were back at it. I felt like we were going pretty fast downhill but I’m sure we weren’t. There were some steeper and rockier areas that were kind of scary. My hand was constantly on the brake, trying not to end up in a cactus.

Like half way into the trail, we stopped for a while to enjoy the end of the sunset. Of course, pictures can never do the sky justice, but it wasn’t a bad night for a sunset ride. There were clouds in the sky so we watched them turn a soft pink, while the glow of the sun slowly sank behind the mountains. It wasn’t your typical romantic night, but it was perfect for me. I’m obsessed with the sky/sunsets so it was nice to know Rodrigo had thought of the things I would like when planning the night.

We turned our lights on as it got dark and by the end of the ride it was fully dark. The half moon lit up our surroundings some, but I was glad we had bought a couple lights each. While it wasn’t too difficult to navigate the path in the dark, it was definitely more of a challenge. Plus near the end, we had to ride back uphill. It was hard work. We finally completed the loop and made it back to our car. The whole thing took us a little under two hours, but that’s with stops.

I would go mountain biking again, although it is kind of expensive ($64 for one bike for 24 hours at the place we went to). I think it would be cool to go during the day and bike to a hiking trail and bring a lunch to enjoy at the end of the trail. Rodrigo says he possibly could make mountain biking his hobby, but it’s definitely not a cheap one. Dependable bikes are no less than $1,000 and I saw some for over $7,000 At the end of the night, I asked Rodrigo how far he had felt like we had biked. He said ten miles. I thought closer to eight. I looked up how long the trail was on the app and we laughed because it was only 3.9 miles. Dang, we felt like we had worked way harder than that.

If you’re someone who loves a little thrill with his/her exercise, mountain biking is the way to go. Give it a go and see if you like it before you commit to buying an expensive bike. I’d definitely recommend getting the MTB Project app, to check out the trails near you. It’s always fun trying out something new for your workout routine, especially when it is outdoors.