Neslon grew up in RI, where she attended Brown University, studying fine arts and running competitively. All that changed after a summer of trail work in the French Alps…. she had fallen in love with the mountains! Goodbye east coast, hello Rocky Mountains! She moved out to Colorado, bought her first mountain bike and never looked back. And so began her passion for two wheels. Racing throughout the west she eventually placed fifth in the national off road championships.
Her love for adventure brought her next to the mountains of Alaska, riding the frozen rivers, working for Wrangell St. Elias Nat’l Park and building a little cabin in the woods. Then off to Antarctica, riding the frozen ocean, skiing the ice shelf, and working at the U.S. station there. She eventually landed back in the mountains of Colorado, ready for yet another adventure.
Enter Adventure Motorcycling….. Mountain biking with power. Her first bike was a CRF230, her 40th birthday present to herself. That little bike took her all over the West and across the Trans American Trail. The next bike was a Harley Sportster, which she’d just as soon forget. At present she rides a KLX250 and a G650 Sertao, the perfect bike for exploring crazy technical trails around Moab and the windy dirt roads and passes of the west. Her passion gets her out riding and camping three days a week in the summer and fall with her boyfriend (the unofficial bike picker-upper).
This passion for riding and love of the mountains and wild remote places gives Nelson a deep appreciation for the mission of Rally for Rangers. Get those bikes out there and save those beautiful wild places!!
Just a note… she is not one faceted. She’s also partial to knitting, reading historical fiction, soaking in hot springs, cooking delicious soups, hiking, laughing, avocados and sweet potatoes, swimming, dancing to loud music, dark beer, telemark and skate skiing, hot tea, and standing in a cold stream at the end of a long ride.