Claire, Harris and I drove to Faribult and loaded up to ride the the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail and to spend the night bike camping in Sakatah Lake State Park. We had an exceptional day of March weather. The high was in the mid 70's and the low was around 50. The registration card shows camp site 51, the kids favorite. They had a great time with this big rock. We could have stayed anywhere, as we were the only people in the park.
But to keep us from getting lonely, we had a barred owl and its mate calling back and fourth several times during the night. The sounds weren't spooky, but they were startling.
Claire's 13' framed 930 rides wonderfully, but we did have some trouble with the seat-post rack which kept sliding down and rubbing on her rear wheel. Zip ties to the rescue. I connected the top of the rack to the seat rails.
A little red licorice keeps spirits high along the trail. The kids did get a bit grumpy the first day, because dad misjudged the distance to the town where we were going to stop for lunch. It didn't help that the only cafe was closed, so we needed to ride on to the next town to eat. Well fed kids make for happy bikers.
Below, Harris is on his 24" wheel Schwinn Caliente. It really does a nice job on such railroad grade tours. He runs out of gears on bigger hills. This is where Claire's triple chain-ring front shines.
We make it a point on our bike camping trips to spend some time harvesting what nature has to offer. Usually it had been the berry variety or wild plum of the season. This time the best we could do was to harvest baby dandelion greens, which were quite good.
My Long Haul Trucker carried a load and a lot of gear too. In addition to me, I carried two tents, two sleeping pads, two sleeping bags, a blanket, all of our food, all of our cooking gear and all of my personal gear. I can't imagine ever carrying so much stuff on a tour without the kids.
We took time to watch animals, to look at cool mushrooms and to play Pooh sticks. Another good trip!
2 comments:
With all of those miles now under their belts and smart upgrades to their equipment, those two are getting really good... at posing for the camera. :)
Seriously though, looks like a great time, I can't wait. I keep coming back to the licorice picture with the variety of still and movement and light exposure.
Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed reading about your family bike tour and I passed a link on via my Twitter account (@travellingtwo).
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