What I wish I knew when we moved here

The gravel starts at my driveway

I moved here from New Mexico, where every ride was a climb, so the hills here never bothered me. What surprised me is the gravel. I live on the west side of Ann Arbor, and I can roll out of my driveway onto a 35-mile loop of gravel farm roads through lovely southeast Michigan farmland and barely see a car. That kind of access, endless quiet gravel in every direction, is the single best thing about riding on this side of town. If gravel is your thing, look west: the roads past Zeeb Road toward Dexter and Chelsea are some of the best riding in the county.

The mountain biking shocked me

This was the real eye-opener. I came from New Mexico expecting the Midwest to be flat and boring on dirt. Then I rode the Potawatomi Trail and the DTE Energy Foundation Trail, and I'll say it plainly: some of the best mountain biking in the Midwest is 30 minutes from my driveway.

The Poto at Pinckney is 17.5 miles of proper intermediate-to-advanced cross-country: fast and flowy in stretches, with technical climbs, roots, and rock gardens, and 1,200-plus feet of climbing that will humble you. (It's currently getting a $500,000-plus volunteer-led revitalization, so it keeps getting better.) The DTE trail at Waterloo is the opposite flavor: about 20 miles of machine-built flow trail across four loops (Green Lake, the easiest; Big Kame; Winn, the longest; and Sugar, the most technical, with rock features), nicknamed "Michigan's Dirt Roller Coaster." One quirk to know: direction alternates by day (bikes ride clockwise Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, counter-clockwise Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday). You'll need a Michigan Recreation Passport for the state recreation areas. Buy it with your license plate registration and you're covered everywhere.

New to dirt or bringing the family? Start at Rolling Hills (Ypsilanti Township, about 4 to 5 easy miles), Hewens Creek (about 2.2 flat miles), Olson Park in Ann Arbor (about 2.5 miles of green-rated singletrack), or Sharon Mills near Manchester (a scenic 3.8-mile loop along the River Raisin). Work up from there. That's what I did.

Winter doesn't end riding season unless you let it

Coming from New Mexico, I assumed November meant hanging up the bike. Wrong. Studded tires, good lights, and layers keep you rolling on plowed paths all winter, and the groomed fat-bike trails at DTE, Pinckney, and Maybury are genuinely some of the most fun riding of the year. My advice: don't buy all the winter gear in October. Ride through November, figure out what's actually cold, then outfit yourself.

The river is the town's front porch

It took me months to realize the Huron River isn't scenery. It's infrastructure. The B2B trail along it is how you get to the parks, how kids learn to ride safely, how you string together a Saturday. Gallup Park on a summer evening, with kayaks going under the bridge and everyone out walking, told me more about Ann Arbor than any neighborhood tour. If you're new: go to the river first.

You don't need the perfect bike, you need a shop

I overthought my setup when I arrived. What actually mattered was finding a shop I trusted: people who'd tell me honestly what I needed and what I didn't. (See the community guide for my picks.) A good shop relationship is worth more than any upgrade.

Riding with a little kid is the cheat code to knowing a place

My son was tiny when we moved here. Riding with him, slowly, stopping constantly, noticing everything, taught me this town faster than any solo hammerfest ever could. Gallup Park's paths, the Bandemer trails, the neighborhood loops: I know which streets feel like home because I learned them at three miles an hour. If you've got a little one, the bike isn't just transport. It's how you'll learn to love it here.