Pines And Pistons

“I’d love to try camping but what do I even do with my hair?!”

It was about 3 days before my 30th birthday and I’d signed up for a girls-only mountain biking day at a Welsh bike park, about 3 hours away. 

Thinking back to this time… I was actually quite terrified, full of anxious butterflies and shaking while I was signing my waiver that morning. 

Doing things that scare you has been my motto for the past few years and whilst I do practice what I preach, it doesn’t make it any less scary – no matter how many times you do it. 

I headed back to my car and got changed for the day, carefully pulling on my knee pads over my fresh tattoo (one of my ‘30 things before turning 30’ ideas) and stuffing my coat in my bag. Once I had filled up my water bottle I headed over to the big meeting, that alone felt intimidating, lots of super cool chicks, loud chatty girls and even a pregnant lady that was riding! One of the leaders spoke to me and I confessed how nervous I was and how little I had biked. I didn’t grow up riding bikes. I had only learnt to turn right in that June before, and I certainly had never ridden any graded trails. She watched as I went around the pump track, luckily it was a clockwise trail as I was still yet to master the terrifying, yet necessary art of the great left hand turn, and once she exclaimed that I was ready for a green, off we went to the queue. 

Hordes of men stood talking loudly at each other while drum’n’bass pumped from the speakers, I felt like I had been thrown in the deep end and we weren’t even on the trucks yet. I was very thankful at this point to have my new bike pal help me put my trusty steed onto the trailer, an art that seemed only mastered by the few fearless and very strong people. We headed up the twisting track to the top of the mountain, and while I’m sure this lady was speaking to me the whole time and being very calm and assuring, honestly, I can only remember a blank gap here. I think the fear was well and truly rooted deep now and had begun to pulsate around my body. 

By lunch time I had become a little more calm, ridden a few trails, jumped on a few more uplifts and my new tutor had taught me a few tips to help trick my brain into believing  that we weren’t about to die at all times (when we most definitely were). On one of the last few uplifts I met a lovely lady, she had a green coat on and introduced me to a big group of girls who quickly took me under their wing and hugged me into submission – something I am forever grateful for, as I know that this was an important step in my bike career. I met the rest of her friends soon after and they quickly added a dusting of glitter to biking for me.  This specific lady turned out to be the infamous “Gill in the green coat” and the story went from here. Since then I’ve been on a lot more girl rides, met even more amazing women, some who even took me along to my first race. I have subsequently been on another race which was female only and have enjoyed more bike parks with them, than  with my own husband!

At the end of this glorious day, we all sat around drinking beer with mascara down our faces, passing around a tinted lip balm and laughing at everyone’s crashes. The next shock for me was when everyone got changed, floaty dresses, jeans, cute hair styles and a whole load of pretty things. I couldn’t believe the absolute fashion show that was before my eyes. All these crazy outdoor girls were just normal people! They still liked to go on nights out, or loved hiking or just wanted to go home and read a book, and the best part? They all dressed however the hell they liked. 

Life was good. I was a girl. I was wearing mascara and caked in dirt. And apparently, I was allowed to be all those things at once.

My whole life I thought I wasn’t able to wear make up and be outdoorsy, turns out the only one enforcing that rule was me. I thought being outdoorsy meant no pink, a serious lifestyle and definitely no glitter. A few years later, I sat in the back of a beat up Land Rover with these incredible women again, some in tie dye and some in solid black, one in full neon pink and myself in green dungarees, we were all guffawing and taking the mick out of each other, having the best time.

Growing up I could be pretty judgemental of the popular girls. Looking back, I think I felt intimidated by their ability to be themselves. They seemed comfortable wearing dresses and being feminine, while I was busy being a tomboy and trying very hard to be different.  When I read ‘Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’ by Florence Given, that was around a similar time and reinforced again that there is no cookie cutter fit to be a girl, outdoors or not.

You don’t have to leave part of yourself at home to be allowed on the adventure. I hope this article might give just one other person the permission to be entirely who they are.

Permission to:

• wear glitter while wild camping
• fake tan before a mountain bike weekend
• love Land Rovers and lip tint
• read fantasy novels around a campfire
• care about skincare and still hike all day

I’ve read a lot of outdoor blogs, and many of them unintentionally suggest that “real adventurers” don’t care about any of these things. After enough weekends waking up in a roof tent looking like I’d been dragged backwards through a hedge I started collecting tiny little tricks. Not to impress anybody else. Just because catching your reflection in the mirror and thinking “Actually… I still look quite nice,” is a lovely feeling before heading off for eight hours on the trails.

Some tricks for facing the trails with confidence: 

Sunshine in a Bottle

By February, my skin tone can only really be described as “Victorian ghost”. To combat this, I use St. Tropez facial mist for just a little bit of colour. I also use Coco & Eve fake tan mousse on a kabuki brush where I’d normally apply bronzer. It gives me some colour with basically no effort for at least three days.

Glitter palette

Also known as Pocket Fairy Dust or Campfire Glamour, this is something that yes, makes my eyes glittery and more beautiful, but also feels a bit like applying war paint before dropping into a really scary track.  You don’t need much. Just enough that when someone catches a photo of you laughing around the fire you think… “I look exactly how I wanted to remember this trip.” My go to is ‘ABOUT_TONE Oh:My Glitter Pop’ in the colour My Fairy. It costs around £12. Bargain. 

Tubing mascara

Ever feel like you’re waking up part panda? Fear no more! Tubing mascara comes off with warm water and some gentle pressure. Mine survives sweat, hiking and a surprising amount of Welsh weather. If any mascara does come off, it drops in small clumps instead of smearing down your cheeks to pay homage to Gene Simmons. My go to mascara is ‘Hourglass Unlocked Instant Expressions’ in the colour Espresso. I paid around £34.

Hair!

If I’m honest, I’m totally not a hair girl. After years of having scraggly hair from mistreating it while hiking, having strands actually snap off because of frost while snowboarding, and bleaching it until the blonde blindness looked like white chicks, to now getting it caught in my MTB helmet and ripping actual chunks out, I’m not in a position to be giving out perfect advice. But I do have average advice and I think that’s useful too. I wear a hat. Not always, but 99% of the time it’s a beanie or a bobble hat, SnapBack or trucker. I do a pony tail out the back to help with the wind, or braids each side to stop it from sticking to my lip balm or on a bold day I let it fly free. Plaiting it during a sleeping bag sleep will save the mess the next morning and not brushing it seems to keep mine in place because let’s be honest by day 3 we aren’t styling it, we are negotiating with it. 

You, (and if Jane Austen was in the Ice Age her too,) will be pleased to know that since writing this blog, I have invested in a sort of merino bonnet to save my hair being pulled out by my life saving helmet. It keeps my ears warm and stops my helmet creating the choppy wolf hairstyle that I definitely didn’t do myself.

Listen, the hardest part is usually saying yes the first time. Trust me, this is coming from a girl who didn’t learn how to ride a bike until she was 29 and now voluntarily gets on uplift trucks at bike parks! Mainly for the flowy blues – I’m not completely unhinged.

So if you’re hovering over the booking button for that girls’ ride, wondering whether you’ll be good enough, outdoorsy enough, brave enough—or whether you’re allowed to pack your glitter eyeliner—consider this the little voice in your head telling you to go. 

Pack the glitter. 

Adventure doesn’t have a dress code.

Love from,

The girl who refuses to believe you have to stop being feminine just because you’re sleeping in a roof tent.

The Glovebox

🛻 total mileage: 177,999

🎧 listening: Forget small talk: go deep instead – the happiness lab PODCAST

☕️ drinking: Monin Amaretto syrup in all my coffee

🏝️last camp: the beach