Benefield: At 90, Santa Rosa mountain biker still riding the trails

C.J. Jorissen thought it’d be a fun father-daughter thing to do, so she invited her dad to hit the trails with her.

Not hiking or walking, Jorissen wanted to go mountain biking.

“It was like, ‘Hey do you want to start riding?’” she recalled.

Jorissen’s dad, Jim, said yes.

So off they went.

That was 30 years ago. Jim Jorissen was 60 at the time.

Today, C.J. has long since left mountain biking behind, but her dad? He’s still at it — at 90 years old.

“When he’s up there and other bikers find out he’s 90, they freak out,” Jim’s wife, Gail, said.

Jim concedes this point.

“It surprises a lot of people,” he said.

But it doesn’t surprise C.J.

“My dad is one of those people that once he gets into something, he’s kind of a zealot,” she said.

She means it as a compliment.

“I think he’s amazing.”

And before you wonder, let’s dispel the notion: Jorissen does not ride an e-bike. It’s all him.

Jorissen, who turned 90 in April, grew up on a farm in North Dakota.

He spent his working years laying flooring.

It’s fair to say, he’s tough.

So it makes sense for his hobbies to be tough as well.

“I never have gotten into golf or tennis to speak of,” he said.

But when he and his daughter went mountain biking three decades ago, he got the bug. Hard.

He’s raced in the massive Sea Otter Classic in Monterey. He’s traveled the West looking for the best trails. He takes trips with buddies looking for single track to die for.

“I was not among the fastest racers but if they had a class for the old guys like me?” he said.

That said, it wasn’t, or isn’t competition, that drives him.

“I was never in it for the racing part in so much as I was curious about it,” he said.

Gail said she’s nothing but enthusiastic about her husband’s hobby.

“I would say he gets light out there mountain biking,” she said. “It makes (his) day when he comes home.”

But it’s a hobby not without dangers.

He’s crashed. He’s gotten banged up. But nothing too bad, he insists. And certainly nothing that would keep him from saddling up and heading out again.

In fact, when he goes down on a trail, that’s usually the first one he returns to.

“I look forward to riding the trails that I’ve fallen on,” he said. “The best of the riders go down.”

Gail said she’s got confidence in his abilities, that she doesn’t worry much. But she does insist that he take his phone.

“If he gets hung up he calls me,” she said. “In general, I don’t worry about him too much. He’s such a good rider.”

When Jorissen’s daughter suggested he try mountain biking, he was nearing the end of his flooring career. He felt physically strong but thought he could use some more aerobic strength.

“My work involved heavy stuff,” he said. “I said I need to do some cardiovascular stuff.”

He was immediately captured — by the difficulty, by the physicality — but also by the beauty and the peacefulness he found on the trails.

“It’s given me a lot of aerobic exercise certainly,” he said. “You can be huffing and puffing and you don’t mind, you just keep puffing away. It’s good for you.”

And back when he was working and just starting to get into biking, he’d go out after a hard day of laying floors.

“I carried my bike in the truck and as soon as I’d finish work I’d go up and ride,” he said. “I had endless energy then. It was a good way to end the day.”

Back then he had no clue his new hobby would stick for so long.

“I had no idea I’d be riding at 90,” he said. “But even at 75 and 80 I was riding pretty seriously.”

When he was in his greatest form, he’d take on 20 to 25 miles a day in Trione-Annadel State Park, multiple days a week.

“Annadel has so many good trails,” he said. “Over the years I have spent a lot of time up there.”

And he still does.

From his home in Oakmont, Jorissen will usually drive to a parking lot near Channel Drive and start his ride there.

He’s a fair weather rider these days, calling trail rides off if it is wet or too cold. Instead he’ll ride the roads around the perimeter of Oakmont, which is about 7.5 miles.

“In the past few years my balance isn’t what it used to be, so now my handling skills aren’t what they used to be,” he said. “But I do what I can do.”

And that means less single track and more fire roads. He’ll opt for wider, less technical Canyon Trail over rockier, narrower Spring Creek trail.

He’s made other modifications.

He’s got clip pedals now, which allows him to slide his feet out a little easier. He’s raised his handlebars to add a bit of comfort. He’s put a bell in the shape of a hamburger on his handlebars, to alert other trail users that he’s coming.

“My favorite descent?” he said. “Probably Richardson. It’s not very gnarly and it’s smooth all of the way down.”

“I don’t know what it is, but the speed? I like descending,” he said.

When I ask about the draw, what pulls him to hitting the trails multiple times a week at his age, he struggles a little bit to describe it.

“It’s hard to say. Unless you mountain bike, you don’t understand,” he said. “You are on single track, you are riding through the woods …”

Say no more.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.