Defining the Ineffable with Trina Ortega
"Home."
My wife gifted me a year subscription to Mountain Flyer Magazine early on in our marriage.
At the time I was only just getting into mountain biking. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I think I’ve ever received. I’ve kept the subscription going since.
It astounds me a print publication devoted to only mountain biking is still around. Like a cassette player in a sea of tweets, TikToks and Snapchats — onward it pedals, with its analog stability and confidence.
Trina Ortega was the managing editor when I started reading the magazine. In 2020, that weird year, she wrote an editor’s note about the publication’s move to make mountain bike media more diverse. The letter published in October, just six months following her promotion to editor-in-chief.
As a white male, I hadn’t really given much thought to the fact that most of the people I’d seen represented in the magazine looked and sounded like me. I never realized how much of an impact that had on me as I considered mountain biking a sport I’d like to try.
I admired her resolve to get more diverse media in the pages of Mountain Flyer. I’m sure she received flak. The magazine receives it a lot today, from apparent long-time readers who criticize the publication for allowing it to be swallowed up by wokeism.
Woke or not — doesn’t matter. Mountain Flyer Magazine is still a solid publication, doing great things for the sport and the people who love it. And if a 16-year-old Chinese boy or a Native American girl sees someone that looks like them in these pages and is inspired to give MTB a try because of it … I mean, that’s pretty cool.
Trina, thank you for your contribution to Mountain Flyer. And mountain biking. Keep pedaling.
What is your age?
I just turned 54 on Nov. 5.
Where do you live currently?
Carbondale, Colorado
Who is part of your immediate family?
Spouse Marty Treadway. We have two boys: Tyler (21), Potter (14) and a rescue dog named Mojo.
What keeps you busy these days?
My full-time job as manager of Coal Basin Ranch mountain bike trail system; riding bikes with friends and family; playing golf with family; painting; writing poetry; reading (current book is How the Word is Passed); playing board games (favorites are Seven Wonders and Wingspan); watching all the Star Wars spin-off series.
Describe your first memory that involves riding a bike.
I am not one of those who has a vivid memory back to age 4. But I do recall falling on my bike at about age 8. I was riding a green apple-colored, banana-seat bike with multi-colored tassels coming out the bar ends. I grew up an urban rat in north Denver. My sister and I would ride bikes and do the equivalent of parkour (before it was called that) on the grounds of an office complex on my neighborhood. It had this cool four-tiered parking garage that was our playground. Naturally, I left a lot of skin on the pave of that office complex. I couldn’t tell you what caused me to fall while riding that day – user error most likely – but I remember the giant strawberry-red scar on the inside of my knee. It bled a lot and I cried a lot. I still have a faint scar from it.
Your career has meandered from public relations to journalism to trails manager -- but the common denominator has always been the outdoors. Where does this passion for the outdoors come from?
As a native of Colorado, I have loved the Rocky Mountains for as long as I can remember. I recall picking chokecherries with my mom along the South Platte River while my dad lure-fished, and we spent countless weekends road tripping around the state, camping at Forest Service campgrounds, exploring national and state parks. These experiences instilled a respect for the land that will be with me forever. It also has led to a deep desire to share outdoor experiences with others, so I taught rock climbing in college, later was an Outward Bound instructor, and most recently have helped kids get on mountain bikes by co-founding Roaring Fork Cycling, a youth devo program in my area). Now I get to share Coal Basin Ranch, which as a really unique story as the former base operations for a large-scale coal mine. The property is now being restored into a mountain bike and hiking trail system, free and open to the public.
You served as Editor-in-Chief at Mountain Flyer Magazine from May 2020 to April 2021 -- so through the covid-19 pandemic. What was the most challenging aspect of that? A follow up: what was the most rewarding aspect of that time?
If I don’t look at it selfishly, I think the biggest challenge for me was keeping a level head. There was much to fear in those early days; we were experiencing a global pandemic, after all. So I think tempering that fear was the true challenge. My husband has asthma, so we were quite worried about his exposure. On a very personal level, however, it was terribly difficult to have my immediate family – whom I love very much – in my work space. As a remote worker, I’d been working from home and my deadlines didn’t change one bit, Mountain Flyer never missed publishing an issue. So all of a sudden, my husband was working from home and both my boys were home with nothing to do, and we do not have a large house. It was challenging to find a quiet corner to focus on work. Again, selfishly, I was also jealous of all the people who had so much free time. Ha ha.
On the flip side, I found it fascinating to be experiencing such a rare moment in history, in humankind’s existence, to bear witness to how odd “we” can be (hoarding toilet paper) and how beautiful “we” can be (people offering to get others’ groceries, painting stones with words of inspiration and leaving them in public spaces) during stressful times.
As a fellow cyclist, I know you have bikes. Can you list off your steeds?
Rocky Mountain Instinct Carbon 70 (2021) – No name but it’s a she.
Chumba Sendero, titanium, set up as a 27.5+ (2021) – Jonesy
Surley Straggler 650B (2015) blinged out with Paul Component Engineering stem, seatpost, brake levers, Klamper brakes. No name but she’s also a she and she is a beauty.
Yuba Boda Boda cargo bike (2014) – my true daily driver rain, snow or shine.
What is the length of your last ride in hours (or minutes) and miles?
Ha ha. I ride every day for my commute to work. But I have not ridden my mountain bike for a while, due to snow and full-time work. At least it was a fun one: I demo’ed a Revel Rail for a few days and tried to just hammer out familiar laps in my “hood”. So my last ride was 6.7 miles/891 ft gain/53 minutes.
I titled the ride in Strava “I’ll see your Jorts and raise you a canvas work pant.”
Keep it fun, right?
https://www.strava.com/activities/7998672696
Describe the feeling that cycling gives you.
Home.
I get in the saddle, turn the cranks, and I feel home. I turn the cranks, hit the trail, and the mountain air cleanses my lungs. I hit the trail, round a corner, and my eyes open to the pink sunlight on sage-brushed hills. I round a corner, drop downhill, and worries flee the mind. I drop downhill, lean into the earth, and time disappears. I lean into the earth, settle in, and I am home.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this Q&A, give it a like and a share. If you’re new here, and would to join us in our musings of bicycle riding, subscribe. You won’t regret it.
Next Sunday, we’ll continue in our pursuit to define the ineffable joys of cycling with James Murren, the San Diego-based writer behind
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