It's Time

Cooper and I have been out to Carver a few times and he has also done some trail work at Battle Creek, so I figured that it was time to take him out on the trails.

I started thinking of a route that minimized the hills and decided to ride up to the Rec Center trail head and take the usual route down across BC Road and then down the luge, from there we would go left and then ride to the Overlook and take the road back home. There's a few climbs in there but nothing that he can't handle.

We headed up the road and he quickly fell behind as usual even though I was going at a slow pace... I hollered at him to keep up, and when he did, he said that he wasn't pedaling because I wasn't pedaling. He's already a roadie I guess.

Once we got to the trail head I snapped this picture to commemorate his first ride of hopefully many at BC.

Good thing we didn't drive.

The beginner trail went well and we were soon on our first climb. He took it like a champ and was pedaling hard and passed me by at one point. I was in shock that he wanted to ride in front of me and take the lead.
Then we came on a few quick up and downs and he struggled with finding the right gear. I am always reminding him ahead of time that he may want to get in an easier gear, but he usually ignores my  warnings and then struggles up the hills.

Once we were at the top it was all smooth sailing down to BC Road. He had a little slip up on the entrance but he was back up and riding in no time.

We took the shortcut to the luge where I though he would have a blast. I let him go first so that I could watch him and see if anything went wrong. What I forgot is that even thought the luge is a downhill, you still have to carry some speed or you can find yourself in a bad position. I had to remind him to keep his speed after the 2nd turn. He made it down the rest of the trail and then took a spill right before the log skinny. I think that he didn't know if he should go straight or take a right and hit his front brake too hard. He was OK though. When I picked up his bike I noticed that the front brake cable noodle had come out of its housing. I tried to put it back in but it was bent too far apart and I couldn't bend it back with my fingers.

Luckily we were close to the paved trail so I decided that it would be best if we just headed home. Since we didn't get our full ride in I told him that he had to go hard the entire way home and that I would follow him. He did pretty well averaging about 9-10 mph. He also got a chance to work on his shifting because when he rides with his friends, he never shifts.

When we got home he was exhausted but not so much so that he couldn't join his sister for a runs at the slip n slide. I think we got in about 3.5 miles which is a little short for him, but we'll get back out there and give it a shot again soon.