When Anna Herrnstein, once an avid road cyclist, moved to Charlotte from small-town Ohio, she found it hard to stay committed to two wheels.

“The streets were just so busy it freaked me out,” she says. After several years of freaking out, Herrnstein finally turned to the trail to get away from traffic. She bought a cheap mountain bike and went out to Ann Springs to get her first taste of fat-tire fun. She got that taste all right: a mouthful of mud.

Humbled, she took her crumpled bike into the shop and got two pieces of advice that would change her life. First, don’t ride alone. Second, check out the Dirt Divas. That was four years ago. Now Herrnstein serves as co-president of Charlotte’s one and only trail-chomping, rock-hopping, root-thrashing mountain biking club especially for women.

“It’s a great support structure,” Herrnstein says. “We encourage each other.”

Originally an offshoot of Charlotte’s venerable Tarheel Trailblazers mountain biking club, the Dirt Divas formed in 1999 when founding members Patty Smith, Laura Smith (no relation), and Sharon Castine discovered they shared a common frustration: They couldn’t find other women to ride with.

No longer. Since then, the ranks of the Dirt Divas have grown to include more than 100 dues-paying members. The Divas get together at least once a week for group rides in Charlotte parks (visit www.dirtdivas.net for more info). The group holds monthly skills clinics and several overnight trips. The Divas also carry their fair share of the trail-building load in the Charlotte area. And twice a year, members of the group will take young girls in foster care out on the trail to introduce them to mountain biking. At the end of each year, sponsors help the Divas raise money to buy these girls bikes.

With so many activities, the Dirt Divas clearly fill anecessary niche. But what is it about riding with other women that makes the group so attractive to its membership? Herrnstein says the group provides camaraderie on the trail that many women find sorely lacking when they ride with men. “They don’t talk,” Herrnstein says of stereotypical male riders. “They just hammer it out.”

What makes a Divas ride different? Every organized ride has a leader in front and a sweeper in back. No one gets left behind. Often a rider who failed to clean an obstacle or climb a hill will ask to try again. According to the Divas, that’s just fine.

“We’ll coach each other. We’ll stop,” Herrnstein says. “We’ll cheer them on.”

But don’t think that means these women are soft. When Herrnstein rides with the boys, she has no problem keeping up. Meanwhile, original Diva Patty Smith recently went pro. “It’s fun to ride with other women,” Herrnstein says. “You stop. You swap stories. Then you get back on your bike and ride again.”

-Marcus Wohlsen