By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Reporter
Saturday, Dec. 3 will see the melding of growing groups in the mountain biking community.
Fire Mountain will be hosting its first BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) ride on the trails. The event has been developed primarily through the effort of Cherokee rider Laura Blythe and Diana Parra, founder of the group ‘Riding in Color WNC’. The hope of the event is to establish an even more inclusive and encouraging community of mountain bikers in the region, especially in Cherokee.
Parra said that she first met Blythe after they both attended a biking event. She knew that she wanted to collaborate in some way.
“I saw Laura had attended the event. I was really moved by this post that she shared about being in the company of other Indigenous women sharing their stories. And feeling left alone. So, I reached out to her and let her know what I was doing.”
Riding in Color is an effort by Parra to offer a safe community for more bikers in the region.
“I have been trying to create an affinity space to connect with other mountain bikers of color…It feels really important to create community for myself that feels safe on multiple levels. Because mountain biking is a scary thing. As a therapist, I recognize a need for my nervous system to be settled on multiple levels so that I feel safe doing scary things. But I also just wanted to see more people like me on the trails.”
While mountain biking is a very personally enriching thing for Parra, she said that she also recognizes and respects that this event is being hosted on the Qualla Boundary. She said that she reminds herself that this area, on and off the Boundary, is Cherokee land. That’s why she is so excited to work with Blythe, and to connect with others this weekend.
“It feels really important for me to kind of make sure this isn’t my space. That this is a space for anybody who needs to be in a community, to connect with other people of color. So that we can have more safe spaces and increase access to the trials.”
She said that safety and community are paramount in her group and with this event.
“I’m a therapist so a lot of how I come at it is through the lens of mental health. Whether we acknowledge it or not, racial trauma is deeply seeded. Not just in people of color, also in white folks. But in very different ways. I think that in part of healing this trauma is reconnecting with each other, reconnecting with those parts of ourselves that we have to kind of deny in order to feel safer around white folks,” said Parra.
Mental health and biking are another way that Blythe and Parra can connect.
“For me, it’s my own personal form of therapy. I can work through a lot of work issues or personal issues or built-up aggression that I might not have known that I had. I’m hoping that we can spark something within the community,” said Blythe.
She said that she understands that there are some major barriers of entry for this sport, and that’s why they’re developing events like this or the weekly rides she helps put together.
“We’re getting Motion Makers to donate free rentals to anyone that wants to come try out our trails during this ride. [Parra] has an event set up so people can register and tell us whether they need a bike. I’m reaching out to all of our community members that I know that I have ridden with or that have mention to me that they want to ride. Just to come up. To build community. To make sure that we show the other group joining us that we’re already very inclusive at Fire Mountain.”
Blythe and Parra said that tearing down these barriers is the focus. One of the big hurdles is price. The average price for a decent entry-level mountain bike can be around $600 to $700. There is also the need for gear – helmets, gloves, athletic clothes, bike amenities. For this ride, they want to cover all of that for new folks interested in trying it out.
Then you have the actual learning process of riding.
“It’s really hard. I remember when I started. I started almost on my own. I had one other friend that was kind of still new. It was just learning through hard knocks. I picked up a lot of bad habits. Now that I’ve been into it and I’ve taken a couple of clinics, I’ve been able to correct some of those. But when you’re new, you might have that curiosity…but you might not know how to go about it,” said Blythe.
Parra added that many people in minority communities haven’t had a consistent relationship with outdoors athletic. So, even getting into that element can be a challenge.
“Sometimes you don’t have that sense of safety being outdoors to begin with, feeling safe enough to try really hard things can also feel inaccessible. Because mountain biking overall is just hard.”
Parra said that while she has been biking longer, it was mountain climbing that open her eyes to what was possible.
“There’s another organization called the North Carolina BIPOCs climbers. When I started climbing, it was so liberating to be able to try this new scary thing in a safe environment with other people of color. Who weren’t pushing to be the best climbers but just to connect with each other. That’s what I didn’t have in mountain biking,” said Parra.
She said that she’s also excited by the projected number of riders. Parra said of the people she absolutely knows are going to be there, this is going to be their most involved ride yet.
“This is our first ride with multiple ride groups. Because all of our rides have been very beginner friendly to make it super accessible. So, we don’t assume that people have any experience mountain biking. But now we’re growing enough to where we have people who ride pretty hard and are just now getting connected with other people of color. So, we have to expand to make room for different abilities for the first time. That feels exciting.”
She has high hopes for this event and sincerely hopes that this is not the last BIPOC ride at Fire Mountain.
“I’m like, do we do this seasonally? I feel like if we’re talking about creating community amongst people of color – Cherokee is right here. This feels like an important connection for us to make. Especially because we are on stolen land. I would love it if we could do it multiple times a year,” said Parra.
Blythe insisted that if there are any Cherokee folks that want to sign up, reach out to her directly. She offered her cell number 828-736-6393 as a contact. For more information on Parra’s group, you can find them on Instagram at the handle @riding_in_color_wnc.
The link for the Eventbrite page is https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bipoc-affinity-ride-at-fire-mountain-ugly-sweater-edition-tickets-471572525117
Blythe said that she is looking forward to building on the momentum they already have. She said she is excited to meet knew folks, as well as demonstrate how much Cherokee values community.
“I really want folks to know that, on any given day, Fire Mountain is always inclusive. We’re just trying to build community within the EBCI and also within western North Carolina.”
