50% Chance of Rain...Taking that Risk!!

For my Birthday I got a beautiful new bike. She is named Ariel. We have been out and about a lot lately! I heard about the Banks to Vernonia trail, which is about 20 miles long and I have been wanting to try it for over a month now! It has been a VERY rainy Spring, so every time we have made plans to go ride, it has been raining. Well the forecast for today was beautiful, all week long! Then Friday it changed, to rainy! Just my luck! Early in the morning there was a 10 percent chance of rain, turning to 50% later. We decided to just go for it and got up and headed out. We invited the teens, but only Adrienne accepted our invitation and joined us. Jake's allergies have been bothering him, so I don't blame him for staying home!

We got on the trail at Manning and rode two and a half miles to Buxton where there is a long railroad trestle that crosses a meadow about 30 feet up. There was a slight incline most of the way and Joseph, with his small tires, was working really hard to get that far! After the trestle, we headed back, then stopped for a snack. The kids wanted to go back to the trestle one more time, so we went back and then had a beautiful downhill ride on the way back.

Now would be a good time to mention that Joseph is afraid of hills. Not huffing and puffing his way up, but going down them. The slightest decline and he hops off and walks his bike. We have been working really hard with him on going down simple slopes like from the sidewalk to the street. He has been improving, but heading back to the car I was worried he would walk the whole way back. He kept saying, "wow, it looks like a hill" and we would reply that all the trees made it look that way. So on he went! I was very proud of him. We were almost back to the car when he went over some gravel and fell pretty dramatically! He cried for a minute, then hopped back on the bike and off he went.

Adrienne and Annalina stayed together most of the time. Adrienne was armed with her new camera and took lots of beautiful pictures of our trip, which I have added below. It was such a beautiful morning and I had so much fun spending time with my family. We are going to try to get out as often as possible with the kids, staying active and enjoying nature!