There is a moment on every trip when I wish I wasn’t a mountain biker. Sometimes this moment comes when I’m having a staredown with the toad-faced woman behind the American Airlines counter. Will she notice that every single one of our bags is slightly overweight? That we have three carry-on items each? Is she bribe-able?

Sometimes the moment arrives earlier, when I am trying to drag my bike bags onto a bus and then inevitably something falls out and thwacks me in the shin. Often, it happens even before that, during the packing process, when Macky and I reiterate the same argument we have been having ever since we started traveling together. It goes like this:

Macky: We’re almost done, I just need to get in a few more tires.
Me: (sensing danger) How many tires?
Macky: Just these. (Points to a pile of 30 tires.)
Me: You don’t need that many tires.
Macky: Yes, I do.
Me: No, you don’t.
Macky: (Proceeds to list all the ways he is capable of destroying a tire, which are numerous.)

You get the picture. Traveling as a mountain biker is, at the outset, A GIGANTIC PAIN IN THE ASS. But, that said, I can’t imagine traveling any other way.

Here’s why:

Mountain biking gets you to amazing places.

Sure, sure, hiking gets you to pretty cool places, too. But when you hike to the top of a mountain, you encounter a problem: you have to WALK down the mountain. Seriously, walking downhill has got to be one of the stupidest things ever. If you don’t know what I mean, you obviously haven’t ridden a mountain bike down a mountain. There is just no comparison.

You don’t have to read those dumb “how to stay fit on vacation” articles.

That’s right, no hotel room burpees for you. Just grab your bike, go have fun all day and burn more calories than most people burn in a week (or a month or their entire lifetimes…) Let other people worry about staying in shape. You just worry about having fun…and, um, not whacking your head on a rock.

You can eat whatever you want (and you will want to eat everything).

Prepare to sample every single local delicacy and then some, because you will be starving and probably eating upwards of 4,000 calories a day. Mind you, this can be a bit of a financial inconvenience, but with a little finagling (like eating baked beans straight out of the can, as shown below) it can be done. Just remember that you will have to eat at least every hour so don’t go ANYWHERE without food.

And, most importantly, if you travel as a mountain biker, you will always have friends.

Making friends abroad is not easy. There are language barriers and cultural differences to take into account, plus the fact that people tend to be wrapped up in their own thing with their own schedules and their own friends. It’s hard to break in. Mountain biking changes everything. The bike community has welcomed me without fail on three continents. I have found places to stay, people to ride with, dinner invitations and friends for life. The fact of the matter is that mountain bikers, no matter where they are from, are always interested in other mountain bikers. They want to hear about your trails and then they want to show you why theirs are better. While I loooove being able to eat constantly and stand on epic mountain tops, this is the real reason I bring my bike with me wherever I go.

What about you? Have you traveled with your mountain bike? Are there other similar communities for travelers?