Four Days, Two Wheels, One Lesson

In this episode Clare shares a personal story about her husband and sons taking on the Boise Trails Challenge—a grueling 165-mile mountain biking feat with over 36,000 feet of elevation gain. What started as a family goal turned into a powerful spiritual lesson about persistence, grit, and the blessings that come through effort.

Candice and Clare reflect on how gospel principles show up in everyday life, including favorite quotes from President Nelson and a timely message from Steve Young’s book My Life Behind the Spiral. Whether you're facing a physical challenge, spiritual goal, or personal struggle, this episode is a reminder that the Lord sees our efforts—and effort brings rewards.

Transcript

Candice: All right. Are you ready?

Clare: I was born ready.

Candice: Nice. That’s what I like to hear.

Clare: Or...

Candice: All right—

Clare: You have to introduce us.

Candice: Okay. Welcome to the Sisters Podcast: Latter-Day Voices. I’m Candice.

Clare: And I’m Clare. And today I’m going to share a mountain bike story.

Candice: Nice.

Clare: Um, why do I laugh when I talk? I can’t be serious. Okay.

Candice: I like it. I’m sure you have a million mountain biking stories.

Clare: I do.

Candice: All of Darrin getting injured.

Clare: It’s true. It’s a bad thing. Okay, so every year, Boise puts on the Boise Trails Challenge. And my husband and my two boys—one is 17 and one is 15—decided that they wanted to do it. This is their third year doing it.

Quick background on my boys and mountain biking: my husband grew up doing it a little, and we had lived mostly in the Midwest. So my boys didn’t ride bikes a lot, and there weren’t really mountains. What we thought were mountains weren’t really mountains—until we moved here.

We moved here a couple of summers ago, and everyone was mountain biking. There was a huge community. Everyone in the ward did it. So of course, we followed along and became mountain bikers. They started doing it and my kids fell in love with it.

So there’s this Trails Challenge. Before I get into the story, let me tell you about it. It started to honor a guy named Jason. I won’t say his last name because I don’t know how to pronounce it. He tragically passed away while mountain biking, but it was his passion.

I’ll read from the website—boisetrailschallenge.com. He co-founded Boise Trails, and in the summer of 2017, he and his friends were trying to ride all the trails on the Ridge to Rivers map. It’s a really cool map—it shows all the trails in the Boise area, their distance, elevation, mileage, all of it. They were trying to ride all of them.

Jason thought, wouldn’t it be cool if they could hook up GPS to track progress automatically instead of doing it all by spreadsheet? So they started what became the Boise Trails Challenge.

Every year, from June 19 to July 19, people try to ride every trail in the Boise area in just one month. Here are some of the stats: the total distance is about 165 miles—which isn’t too bad—but the elevation gain is about 36,000 feet. That’s a lot. Riding on flat ground is one thing, but up in the foothills and mountains? It’s exhausting. It’s incredibly challenging.

So my boys and husband decided to do it. My husband usually takes Thursday and Friday off work, they wake up around 5 a.m., ride all day, and crash at night. They do this for four straight days and try to knock it out.

In 2023, they tried the Trails Challenge for the first time. The goal was to finish in four days. They finished in 162nd place and it took much longer than four days.

In 2024, same goal. But on day three, one got super dehydrated, the other got injured, and then on day five they had FSY. So the boys didn’t complete it. My husband finished later, slowly, over a week or two.

Then in 2025—this year—they tried again. They said, “Okay, this is the year we’re going to do it.” And they finally did it. They completed it in four days. That was huge for them.

They love to ride and they’re good at it, but it’s not like they’re riding 30 to 50 miles a week. Maybe just a couple times a week. So this was a big stretch goal.

Honestly, it’s exhausting for the whole family. I shuttle them to some of the rides—drop them off, pick them up, meet them at different points to make the ride easier or help them avoid steeper climbs. It’s four days of chaos.

And watching your kids and husband go through something that brutal—it takes so much effort and grit and determination. From sunrise to sundown, they’re pushing themselves physically and mentally. It’s exhausting. And it’s kind of heartbreaking because they’re just so wiped out. You wonder, “Can they really do this?”

People ask if they listen to music the whole time. And I keep telling my boys—there’s only so much music you can listen to. You’ve got to switch to audiobooks.

One of my boys was like, “I’ll just listen to the Harry Potter series again.” I told him, “You’ve read it ten times. Let’s try something new.” So I told him, “You really need to listen to the Steve Young book.”

Candice: So good. My Life Behind the Spiral.

Clare: Yeah, that one.

Candice: Yeah.

Clare: I told my boys, “You need to listen to this book. It shows how much grit and determination Steve Young had to become one of the greatest quarterbacks—and how much anxiety he had to deal with.” One of my sons really struggles with anxiety before races, and I thought this would be perfect for him.

After day one, I asked, “Are you reading the book?” And he was like, “Wow, this is incredible.” He kept telling me highlights. And my other son had already read it, so they were both sharing takeaways from it. It was so cool.

You might be wondering what this has to do with the podcast.

Let me share a quote from President Nelson: “The Lord loves effort, and effort brings rewards.”

I heard this story from Sister Joy D. Jones. In 2020, when she was the Primary General President, she shared an experience where kids were interviewing President Nelson. One of them asked, “Is it hard to be a prophet?” And President Nelson said, “Of course it’s hard. Everything about becoming more like the Savior is difficult.”

Then he gave this example: when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, He told him to climb Mount Sinai. He didn’t say, “Let’s meet halfway.” He said, “Go all the way up.”

That stuck with me. I looked up Mount Sinai—7,497 feet high. Mount Timpanogos is 11,753 feet. Still a tough climb! But the message is clear: effort matters.

And that made me think of my boys. Their first year—they couldn’t finish in four days. The second year—they couldn’t finish at all. The third year—they did it. Because they kept practicing. They kept trying. They progressed.

That’s the lesson: if we’re striving, following the Lord, doing our best—it’s okay if we’re not perfect yet. We just need to keep trying.

And I thought of Nephi. The Lord asked him to build a ship. He had no tools, no experience, and his brothers doubted him. But Nephi was obedient. The Lord helped him get the tools, taught him how to build the ship, and stayed with him.

And I wondered—how else was Nephi rewarded besides building the ship? I think he got a little bonus when the Lord let him “zap” his brothers with a touch. Just a little jolt from above. Sometimes I think the Lord has a sense of humor.

Candice: I like that.

Clare: Besides the obvious reward of the ship, right? But seriously—the Lord loves effort. And our efforts, whatever they are, will be rewarded.

Whether we’re working on our talents, trying to read our scriptures, or just trying to make it through a hard thing—what’s important to us is important to Him. He knows us. He sees us. He’s there.

I honestly believe He was cheering for my boys on those trails.

Candice: It’s such a good reminder that this mortal life is all about learning and growing. One of the blessings of having a body is that we can act—we can make choices with our time. What am I doing today that’s helping me become who I want to be a year from now?

There’s something about having a physical body that gives us the opportunity to become more like the Savior. It’s hard, but it’s worth it. Working toward anything meaningful brings growth.

Clare: Yeah. Whatever mountain you're climbing, whatever trail you're riding—the Lord loves effort.