Mtn. Biking, the Start

I started riding a bike as an adult about 8-10 years ago using my oldest son's bike that he left laying in the garage when he went off to college. I was xc-skiing in the winter and wanted to start doing something in the summer so biking it was.
As I travel a lot for work in the midwest, it was only natural I took it on the road with me. I didn't like the idea of road biking, and the bike was a mtn. bike so I struck out on xc-ski trails as I knew where many were. Had no idea what singletrack was.
I also have taken my bike to Sweden when going there for work a number of times.
My oldest son ( in picture during 24-9 at Wausau) then got me interested in real mtn. biking. He talked about us doing a race series in WI called WEMS. This sounded fun and it allowed for us to spend a lot of time together and share an interest.
For racing I updated my bike and ended up with a Gary Fisher X-caliber 29er, a hardtail (no rear suspension) and a GF Cake (front and read suspension). I bought both used from a local bike shop.
Both of these bikes have been replaced as one got stolen and one met it's maker in an car crash when it was on the bike rack. Stayed with GF but now have a x-caliber 29er and a HiFi Deluxe.

This is the 4th year of WEMS racing although I've been winding down on the racing some and got more into destination riding to MT, CO, AZ, NM, NV, PA, MO and a number of more places.
I get to IN, IL, MI and MN for work.