LOCALadk Magazine

Winter 2016 LOCALadk Magazine 18 LOCALadk event and had little pictures on them. Every night we would take a bus down into Innsbruck and go to the Olympic Center which they called Homebase. There we would eat dinner and play on huge bouncy house towers and bike in collapsible pump tracks with all the other athletes. Overall, the purpose of the trip was not to only compete in high little mountain towns and play with kids from 40 different countries, but to be ambassadors for Lake Placid, the Adirondacks, and even the USA. One of the best parts of the trip was the international relay; on my team I had a boy from Iceland, a girl from Germany and another from Canada. We had a great time in the 15 minutes before the race, and ended up in 5th behind Jesse Izzo's team and Anya Morgan's team. This ex- perience was one that is only made possible by the great people and huge advantages given by living in the Adirondacks. I never would have been able to do this if I wasn't born here. When peo- ple ask how you do all this stuff the answer is easy: It's hard not to when I live in a place like this. Not only is it great here in the winter but it is also phenomenal in the summer. One of the many growing sports here is mountain biking. And that is the beginning of my next story. This summer, I was lucky enough to travel around the northeast (thanks Dad) going to bike races on the Eastern States Cup circuit. With sev- en races all over New England, there were many opportunities to accumulate points. My nemesis (main competitor and good friend) and I came into the last race tied, and whoever won would win the whole series. In the end I took the title. Also a special thanks to Downhill Mike up at Whiteface, and John Dimon of Hu- man Power Planet Earth cycles in Saranac Lake for sponsoring me over the past 2 years, they have been a huge help. This was a wonderful experience. I was inspired to do this because of all the opportunities opened up to me by living in the Adirondacks. There are so many places to ride here because of all the peo- ple who love it. A lot of people build trails, including myself, like Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) and charge nothing at all to ride them. Again, when people ask where I'm from, I am proud to say, "the Adirondacks". Another thing that inspires people are the mountains we have. People come from all over to ski, bike, and hike them. Last sum- mer, after many hours of hiking (thanks Mom), I finally became an ADK46er. It is something that has been a dream of mine for quite some time now. The pleasure of achieving this goal is similar to my win in the overall for the Eastern States Cup. It symbolizes something greater than yourself; something inside of you that makes you happy about where you are from and how that shapes who you are. You can ask anybody in the community to tell you why they love it here and what inspires them and I'm sure each response would be different. "This is my story and I hope it helps you create your own."

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