My name is Emma and I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I've been riding a motorcycle for about five years now, and I guess I just do it because it's fun and I want to do it more than I really want to do anything else. Last summer, I called off a week of work and rode across Pennsylvania, up through New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine and across the Canadian border (for the first time ever!) to Penobsquis, NB for the Backroad Ball and it was one hundred percent the most

My mom used to ask me why I couldn’t be more interested in dolls or dance lessons, back then I was rocking a peddle motorbike in pigtails and fashioning a ramp to echo Evil Knievel’s motorcycle stunts. Now she wonders why I can’t be more interested in cars with airbags and seatbelts, but life behind bars (handlebars that is) has helped save my life from being ordinary. In a couple of weeks I will mount my steel stallion, point it east towards Penobsquis, NB and set-off on a c

Asking myself how can riding on a hunk of metal with two wheels make one feel so powerful & free? Could it be the act of doing something

Embers in the Backroad Ball’s communal fire pit were still glowing and spitting early Saturday morning as the first early risers were getting out of their tents. A few ladies – still rocking their comfy pyjamas – were making a bee-line for the coffee tent. The smell of eggs and bacon filled the air. As more ladies ventured out into the cool, crisp morning, an excited energy took over the Backroad Ball grounds. The quiet whispers from early risers turned into excited chatter.

The sun was hot, the grass was green, the music was pumping and the grounds were ready. A low rumble could be heard in the distance on Penobsquis’ otherwise quiet Route 114. We checked the time: 3:57pm. It was time to welcome our first group of female motorcyclists to the first ever (and now annual) BACKROAD BALL!! Women of all ages arrived in groups of 2 or 3 to upwards of 10-15. They quickly unpacked, set up camp and mingled; some newly licensed (like, we’re talking a coupl