Mother, adventurer, avid High Desert rock climber Mary Metcalf is a force to be reckoned with.
Metcalf spends most of her free time sending lead climbs in Apple Valley’s Fairview Mountain Park or up the sandstone crags in Joshua Tree National Park with her sons and partner/co-founder of Bear Valley Outfitters, Adam Schenk.
This Mother’s Day, the Daily Press has highlighted Metcalf as a District 23 mother who is not only an exceptional caretaker to her two boys, Garner, 11, and Zander, 15, but also an exemplary woman who inspires other women to get outdoors.
A trailblazing lifestyle
Metcalf moved to Big Bear so her boys could have closer access to the outdoors, she told the Daily Press.
Garner and Zander paddleboard, ride bikes, ski and skateboard when they can, she said. They were also part of the Big Bear class that named the famous eagle couple Jackie and Shadow’s baby eaglets Gizmo and Sunny.
Inspiring her boys to live a healthy life outside came naturally to Metcalf, she said, because her parents encouraged the same for her growing up.
Before she was leading 5.10- and 5.11-rated sport climbs outdoors with her family, however, Metcalf was a trailblazer on her mountain bike.
She was the first woman to bike the 3,000-mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 2008, an unsupported journey that took Metcalf across five U.S. states from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico.
Metcalf completed a modified version of the Great Divide bike route in 30 days. She cycled a total of 2,745 miles with more than 200,000 feet of vertical elevation climbing, which, Metcalf admits, is a “s— ton.”
She was one of nine to complete what 17 started out to do that year.
Courage in the face of danger
Metcalf overcame incredible feats, including traversing a late-season snow, surviving grizzly bear country as a solo rider, carrying her 45-pound bike over fallen trees, and stalking from unwanted vehicles in remote stretches of the trail.
In one instance, Metcalf came across a mountain snow pass around 7 p.m. Not knowing how far the snowbank extended, she decided to cross before sundown and camp just on the other side. What she hoped would be an easy feat lasted seven hours in the dark—fresh grizzly bear tracks in the snow underscoring the severity of the situation.
Metcalf made loud noises for the seven hours of peril to ward off unwanted apex visitors, fully aware of the deliciously pungent smoked salmon she was carrying in her bike-pack. She couldn’t call for support along the trail, or she would be disqualified.
The solo rider reached levels of fatigue along the route she didn’t know was possible. She also fell anemic and malnourished along the way, she said.
In more than one instance, Metcalf toyed with the idea of quitting but remembered that she wasn’t just riding the trail for herself; she was doing it for women everywhere.
An updated blog that Metcalf maintained along the route revealed praise, hope, and encouragement from the women following along from home.
“Women have the resilience and fortitude to keep pushing through the hard times,” she told the Daily Press. “It’s ingrained in us as mothers. Without that strength, we’d never be able to bear children.”
Metcalf chose a regular two-person tent over a smarter, lighter bivy sack for safety reasons. She would appear bigger in the tent, she said, so no one could tell if she was a man or a woman alone in the wilderness.
A gender gap exists in the outdoors that doesn’t need to, Metcalf explained. Her completion of the Great Divide Route was an effort to advocate for the receptivity of women in outdoor sports and recreation.
The biker babe still rides occasionally but has since turned her focus to rock climbing because it is “more inclusive for the whole family.”
Now, she loves watching her sons grow in the outdoors and become more skillful climbers, skaters and skiers.
McKenna is a reporter for the Daily Press. She can be reached at mmobley@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Fearless and fierce: Celebrating a trailblazing mom on Mother’s Day
Reporting by McKenna Mobley, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
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