This week has been the most painful shifts in daylight savings time I have ever had. Between the cool fall weather, shortened days, and the "gain" of an hour I have found myself missing opportunities to ride. I try to ride to work at least three times a week. This week, the kids and household 6 had activities every night which more or less hijacked my riding. On Tuesday I brought a bike as my Tuesdays get really long. I figured I could cut out a little early and hit the trails. It had lightly rained for a few hours and at 3:30 I found myself making the following excuses:
1. By the time I change and get to Sylvan Island I will only have 45 minutes to ride.
2. I don't want to get my bike muddy and spend hours getting Mississippi JB Weld (I am convinced you can use this mud to fix anything) from all of the nooks and crannies of my Anthem X29er.
These were two very pathetic excuses and translate to missed opportunities to ride and enjoy life, even in it's cold, dark, muddy glory.
Well today I had to seize the day. It was 72 degrees and although there was a bizarre spattering of rain while the sun was blinding, the Chick and I took Winston and headed to the slough. When we got there we found that the Chicks helmet didn't make it into the car. Sounds like another opportunity for an excuse so we rode sans helmet. I know another nomination for father of the year!
I have stated before that Sylvan Island is an amazing place to start kids mountain biking. There is not a lot of elevation change but the small hills provide my kids an opportunity to learn to ride down hill with out gaining to much speed and freaking out.
Winston loves to get out and run. He stays close and out of the way for the most part.
The Chick is riding a small 26 inch mountain bike and sometimes it looks huge. She is learning to control it. Right now I am trying to get my kids to look ahead and anticipate gear changes. Small hills and mounds pose a problem because she doesn't shift in time and stalls out. We will get there.
For some reason this picture makes look and feel old. It is hard to believe that my Mukluk has the same rim size as the Chick's Giant Yukon.
This turned out to be great opportunity to enjoy some time with the Chick.
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