Jake Dore and his 17-year-old son, Tyler, ride bikes together, dig trails together, and wear purple shorts together.
Jake Dore calls himself a “nonprofit dirt sculptor.” A trail crew leader for Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA), Jake loves doing trail maintenance on his backyard trails in South Lake Tahoe, California, because it’s a way to give back to his local community and make his own trails better at the same time. He got his son, Tyler, into trail work at a young age.
“I’ve been working on trails since I was strong enough to do so, maybe six or seven,” says Tyler, who’s 17 now and about to graduate from high school. “By the time I was 10, I was building trails with my friends, raking trails, building berms and jumps. It’s been my life since then.”
It’s a good reminder that we can all pick up a shovel or a rake and join a work day with our local trail building crew. (Find your local crew at IMBA.com.) “If every mountain biker donated an hour or two, think about how much trail work would get done,” Jake says.
Without forcing it, Jake raised his son to love mountain biking as much as the community trail work that goes on behind the scenes. “I never pushed him to ride,” says Jake, who works as a carpenter. “There were times when I’d be like, ‘You can ride this rock garden because I know you can do it.’ But I didn’t want to make him hate it.” When he was a little kid, Tyler didn’t love pedaling uphill (what kid does?), so Jake worked to make it fun and easy, by towing him, planning shuttled rides, or traveling to ride lift-accessed trails. Clearly, it worked: "Riding bikes isn't just a hobby for me, it's my life," Tyler says.
During the COVID pandemic, Tyler started online school at home and never returned to a traditional in-person school, which created more time for riding his bike. “I had all this time and I wanted to ride my bike every day, all day long."
Once, when he was 13, Tyler—who was out pedaling by himself—ran into one of Jake’s friends way out on a ride, hours from the nearest trailhead. His friend texted Jake to say, “I saw your kid. He was way out there by himself.” “Yeah, that’s what he does,” Jake responded. Nobody was concerned. Tyler was in his happy place.
“When I was a kid, I’d ride my BMX bike all over the place and just be gone. I figured this is different but close to the same?” Jake says. So, is that the great secret to raising a mountain biker? Let them be free to explore? It’s one way, anyway. “I always told him if it’s not fun, you don’t have to do it,” Jake says.
They both agree that they are each other’s best riding partners: They’re the same pace, they like to ride the same kinds of trails, and they know when to give each other space and when to give each other encouragement. Mostly, they like being out there together because it’s a great way to get away. “When you’re on your bike, your world is small,” Jake says. “You don’t think about everything else because your only job out there is to have fun.”
The only issue with riding with your teenage son or your adult father? Sometimes, you end up wearing the same clothes on a ride. Both Jake and Tyler love the color purple and they often rock an older pair of Flylow Animal Shorts in a dark shade of eggplant. “We’ll come downstairs and we’ll both be purp’ed out wearing the same thing,” Tyler says. “That can be embarrassing.”