For this weekend’s adventure we decided to take a family bike ride along the trail in Snow Canyon. Chuck thought it would be a good idea to try starting at the top of the trail because then most of the ride would be down hill. Now I know when Chuck rides his bike on the road from the top of Snow Canyon he pushes 40 m.p.h. I’ve seen countless bicyclists speeding down the hill and I just can’t picture myself ever doing such a thing because the thought of extreme road rash is too much of a possibility. Before we made our decision where to ride, I asked Chuck a few times if the beginning of the trail had such steep down hill grades because I was worried about the kids – and myself! He thought we would be fine so we decided to give it a try.
This was our happy little family getting ready for our bike ride.
And this was the scene literally a few minutes later.
We started off down the first hill and quickly came to a bright yellow warning sign showing a bicycle going down a very steep grade. Bella took a few years off my life as I saw her take off down the hill driving like a crazy mad woman. She was totally out of control, weaving all over the trail and picking up speed with each passing second. All we could do was watch from behind as she finally flew off the trail and landed with a thud in a giant bush. Chuck rushed to pick her up. All I could think was thank goodness she landed in the bush and didn’t get pavement road rash. Then I heard her say, “All that hurts is my arm” and instantly thought, great a broken bone. Her arm was fine and she shed a few tears, but she’s not one to let a little wreck slow her down so she jumped right back on her bike. Samuel walked his bike down the hill repeatedly asking Bella why she didn’t use her brakes, didn’t she see the sign that showed the bike and what he thought was someone flying off their bike. Again all I can say is thank goodness it was Bella because that girl is tough and reminds me of a wet noodle – she can just bend and fly in all directions.
We had just gotten back on our bikes when it was time for another hill. This time I started out first and before I knew it Bella was flying by me and she didn’t even have her feet on the pedals. We were all hollering at her to get her feet on the pedals and use the brakes, but she was going too fast. All I could do was helplessly watch yet again as she flew totally out of control down the hill. This time she flew off her bike and landed on the pavement in a heap. I rushed to pick her up and was relieved to see that her knee was just a little scraped. Again she shed a few tears, but was ready to get back on her bike. It was at this point I decided there was NO WAY we could do this trail! We turned around, walked our bikes up the hills and back to the van. All the time Bella kept asking Chuck, “Daddy, why did you choose this steep hill? Kids can’t do this hill.”
After a disaster of a start, we headed over to our usual starting point in the middle of the trail. We had a fun ride and then Bella decided to join Samuel and I riding the trail out of the park. Samuel and I do this every time while Chuck loads up the other kids and the bikes then meets us outside the park. I should have realized it was not Bella’s lucky day, but she wanted to join us so she came along. We were almost to the end when we started down a little hill. Two other riders were coming up the hill and this caused Bella to forget what she was doing and for a third time she crashed in a big heap as I sat helplessly watching. This time she landed right on her face and I was sure she was going to be a mess, but I helped her up and she only had a little scratch under her nose and a few more scrapes on her knees. Again she shed a few tears, but got right back on her bike and we finished the trail. This Bella girl is one tough cookie! She continually gives me little heart attacks, but she’s tough.
0 comments:
Post a Comment