Summer Bike Rides

OK so it might not be summer quite yet, but it's getting closer, and both the temperature and the attitude in my house feel a LOT like summer, so I'm going with it.  


Yesterday morning, we decided it would be a great idea to go for a family bike ride.  (Except the only family members who were awake at 8:00am were me, Mack and the Scout Master.)  Do you know how long it's been since I've been on a bike ride??  Um...I think I had a bike in Seattle (1998-2000) and I was pregnant for most of the two years that we lived there, so I'm pretty sure I didn't use it much.  

Sometime last summer, Spell Girl and June got new bikes.  I've secretly coveted Spell Girl's for almost the entire year that it's been in our garage.  I don't think she rides it as often as she should.  That thing is SO cute that it seriously needs more attention.  So, of course, hers was the bike I picked for our morning adventure.  

Spell Girl's bike is the pretty green and white one

We decided to ride the golf course trail...which I thought was an awesome idea because I've walked/run that trail at least a million times since we've lived in our house, so how hard could biking it be, right?  


Well, it turns out that even though you might think that riding a bike is so much easier than walking or running because you can go farther and finish faster...that's not really true.  There are tiny little inclines on that golf course trail that I've never noticed on my feet before.


And if you don't love bridges, they're a heck of a lot scarier on a bike than on foot!  So many more things could go wrong...and three whole bikes riding across at once!!  We could have plummeted to our deaths in the raging current below us at any point on those three treacherous bridges we crossed (twice!)

treacherous bridge

raging current

And then...there were all those other people who also decided that being outside was a great thing to do on a Memorial Day morning.  When you're the walker or the runner, you can just move to the side or even to the grass if you need to accommodate other people....or strollers or dogs.  But when you're on a bike, you can't do that as easily...especially if it's been ten years since you've ridden one.  And especially if the "path crossing" happens right at the place where the sidewalk drops off to a giant hill with a tree at the bottom!  I over-accommodated (isn't that the story of my life!) and crashed!  After I got up and everyone was certain that I wasn't seriously injured, the passing jogger said, "I would have given you a 10 for the trick, but the landing was a little rough."  (funny...)

wreck site...it rained last night, otherwise you would be able to see all the blood I left on the trail

After the wreck, I decided I would stay firmly in the center of the trail for the rest of the ride...and if anyone needed to pass me, they would have to be the ones to move because I wasn't going down twice!!


About 3 miles into our ride, we got to the third bridge.  I let the boys go in front of me to blaze the trail (and test the sturdiness of the rickety wooden planks) and then I held my breath and rode on.  Why did they not tell me about the little man crouched down in the middle of the bridge who was organizing his fishing gear???  He startled me.  And he was in my way.  And I didn't see him until it was almost too late to avoid him.  I didn't hit him, but only because my lightning fast, ninja-like reflexes finally kicked in, and I jumped off my bike.  It wasn't pretty, but no one got hurt.  


After making it safely across that bridge, I got back on the bike.  Shortly after, I realized that my back tire was completely flat!  And I got off the bike again...to WALK IT the rest of the three miles home!  (I don't think an ideal bike ride includes so much getting on and off...)  


The ride was more of an adventure than I thought it would be when I agreed to it.  But I made it home alive...with only a small gash on my knee.  

I loved the bike ride yesterday because it reminded me that sometimes I sneak scary things into my day without even realizing it.  Because my friend Stephanie had a super cute Backyardigans bandaid so that I wouldn't bleed in her pool last night at our Memorial Day party.  And because it convinced me that I probably will just stick with my feet for any future exercise plans.