I Want to Ride My Bicycle

So I don’t have a very good track record when it comes to biking…  I have poor balance, slow reflexes and I’m frequently overcome with a fear of getting injured.  Regardless, I love biking.

Three years ago I planned an elaborate mountain biking trip for my brother-in-law and I that went horribly wrong.  What we expected would be a couple hours through the woods on an circling trail known as Jimmy’s Round Top turned into the 6 hour lost-in-the-woods ride from hell.  Well, to be fair it was probably more like 4 hours from hell.  The first two hours weren’t too bad since we hadn’t gotten lost at that point… 

One might ask how two adults could get lost on a trail.  Couldn’t you just turn around and go back the way you came? 

Let me paint you a picture: we are talking the middle of the woods.  Woods as in wilderness.  As in abandoned hunting camps.  Random swampy areas (seriously, we were up to our knees carrying our bikes at one point, in which Scott did not appreciate my light hearted leech humour).  Combined with a ‘trail’ long past succumbing to lush overgrowth of forest floor vegetation.  Isolation and desolation with a backdrop of evergreens set to the score of singing birds.

I’m talking deep, deep in the woods were no girl – no matter how un girly-girl she may be - should ever find herself, even if she is with one of the greatest guys in the world who followed her without question because she was she and she had a map. That she had printed from a mountain biking website that she later discovered had last been updated in 2002.  And required a great deal of interpretation to read.  And she had studied the area topographically (sort of…)  On a day following a huge rain storm.  In September when the days get shorter and it gets down right chilly when the sun goes down.  Especially if you are very wet from repeatedly falling hard into rocky mud puddles. 

Scott summed up the overall experience several hours into the run.  When we came upon a deserted hunting camp in the middle of nowhere, Scott quite seriously stated: ”Oh, crap.  This is the kind of place you go to get murdered”.  And this was before the panic set in…

Well friends, hindsight is 20/20.  I realize now that smart planning can lead to a more foreseeable future if you actually engage your brain.  I guess I’m a work in progress.

Well, I’ve already said more about that experience than I ever thought I would be able to without the aid of a trained mental health professional and the employment of strong anti-anxiety meds….

Since buying a new bike in the spring, my husband has been rediscovering biking.  We’ve been out numerous times this spring and summer on the well known and well maintained community trail by our home.  We gear up and head out with the kids in the bike trailer, setting our sights on short jaunts to the river, beaver dam, and playground.  A few weeks back we did a big trip to one of the lakes that lives beside the trail for a little snack and a dip.  This was about 12km of relatively unchallenging terrain made very challenging by the extreme heat and the near 70lb load in the trailer. 

Well, today My Sweetest and I embarked upon a new biking adventure.  We decided to drive along the road from our home to Peggy’s Cove, approximately a 60 km round trip.  Along the coast sans kids and trailer (thanks Papa-Nanny), just the two of us.

I am delighted to say that we had a blast!  We didn’t do the entire trip as planned, only 43km.  Yay, right!!  And we are both still alive and unscarred!! 

We drove from our home to Hacketts Cove where we lunched on french toast and iced tea at the Finer Diner, a gorgeous place overlooking a quaint fishing inlet along the Saint Margaret’s Bay coast.  We relaxed for a bit, chatted with neighbouring diners and took in the view before deciding to head back home to the kiddies and grandparents instead of pushing on the additional 10km.

See how much I’ve grown?  And I didn’t even bring a map!!

We had a great day and hopefully won't be too sore tomorrow.