Meet Megan Burkholder

** All photos taken by Chris Casella**


Snow fell early On Tuesday the second of February. After several weeks of scheduling and e-mails, it was on. I drove out and picked up the talented and startlingly resilient Mrs. Megan Burkholder for a frozen and snow-covered single-track ride on Alum Creek's Phase 1 trail for a pending article in (614) Magazine. She was ready to rock despite just having several titanium screws removed from her foot during a previous stunt, and absolutely NO experience on a mountain bike. I guess she doesn't write a column entitled "Adventure Girl" for nothing.


After a brief warm-up period in the parking lot, she and photographer Chris Casella headed out into the woods with me for the March issue's "Adventure Girl" segment. Quickly learning how to shift, brake and look through turns, Mrs. Burkholder was smiling as she tore through the tundra. Smiling would cease after about thirty minutes however, once she began to attempt log skinnies in the terrain park. Bolstered by her new found love of mountain biking, we crossed the street for the real deal.


Ever so patiently, Pain was waiting. It would manifest it's self in the shape of a frozen, wooden bridge. Deftly traversing it's slick and bumpy lengths, Megan ever-so-slightly tapped that front brake with about three feet to go. Disaster struck, and I watched Mrs. Burkholder's left rib cage slam helplessly into the rough-hewn handrail of the bridge. Without a single tear or whimper, she would pick herself up, grab her bike, and ride out the remaining two miles of trail to the parking lot. Tougher than hell? I'd say so. Honorary Backboner? Without a doubt. Mad props to Megan, and thanks to (614) Magazine for the excuse to go ride on a twenty degree day! Megan truly is "Adventure Girl," and ya'll best recollyze....