This Saturday my oldest princess, my youngest prince, and their friend came with me on a bike ride down the Lee Gulch trail here in Littleton. We started out by making our lunches then packing up the hydration packs with water and food. I had not even gotten dressed in my bike shorts when we ran into our first problem. My princess' back tire was flat. I had filled it up when doing my safety check of the kid’s bikes. I didn't really have to more than five minutes and the tire was flat again. Luckily, we had a secondary bike nearly the same size that would work. I got dressed prepared my bike, and we were ready to go. Not yet, once my princess' friend D showed up his chain was falling off. No problem, the adjustable wrench worked its magic and off we rode. We rode quickly through the streets getting on the trail. Five minutes on the trail, D lost his chain again. I made a quick repair with my chain tool removing a link from the chain. I figured if the chain kept falling off it was either the wrong chain size or it had stretched out to much.
We finally got on the trail. I didn't really know if I could keep everyone together on the ride. My princess and D started out strong leading the way. My prince struggled up the hills but did pretty good. We recently got him a bigger bike. I am really glad since the larger tire size means he moves more easily. D and my princess stayed in the lead till we got to the lunch spot. I chose a bench near a lake on the trail. D wanted to show us his secret hide out that lay near the lake in a grove of trees, but I asked him if we could locate it another day. We got out the turkey sandwiches and trail mix. My prince asked me if the lake was safe to swim in. I looked out over the brown water, and I observed the half dozen ducks swimming in the mirror still water. I told my prince that I really didn't think that it was safe water to swim in. D chimed in saying that it was probably full of gross stuff. Yep, ducks got to poop somewhere I pointed out.Once everyone was fed we were back on the trail. Everyone rode really well. Our destination was a dirt jump park setup by the parks and rec. D was great at keeping the other two going even after they started getting tired. Both the prince and princess alone don't really have the motivation to make it as far as we were going but with D there he gave them a reason to keep going. I was so proud of them. We rode a lot faster than I thought we would. We arrived at the jump park in little under forty minutes. When we got there I took one look at the size of the jumps and thought this whole trip might have been a bad idea. Personally, I look at the jumps and they don't really look all that big. I am not saying that they are tiny by any means. To give you some perspective to the size the largest jump is about as high as my shoulder (my height being 5'10").
Taking all the kids sizes into account, I thought they would be too intimidated by the jumps to try. I was proved wrong right away when D just tore right down the hill toward the biggest jump. He cleared it without any problem. He then cleared three more jumps in a row. My prince took his run next. The prince like D went for the biggest jump. To my relief he cleared the top, but then my heart skipped when he turned sharply to the right. These are table top jumps so imagine a vertical dirt ramp up to a flat top then another steep ramp down the other side. If one stays straight you'll clear it no problem but off to left or right the sides just drop straight off. The prince turned sharp right on the top flat move his butt behind his seat and rode down the straight vertical side, pretty impressive for a six year old. Then I got my turn at a run. My princess was not going to have any of it, so she would just watch. I made a couple of small jumps nothing to impressive. I thought I should give the large jump a try since a six year old made it. I tore down the hill right up to the jump. I braked a little too much before hitting it so I was pedaling right up the face. I cleared the top, though. Great, I did what a six year old could now on to second jump. I rolled off the top of the first and toward the second table top. I don't remember if I had enough speed going into the second, but I can tell you I cleared the top. Once my front tire cleared, I clearly remember questioning myself as to why I had turned my front slightly to the right. Before I could answer though physics caught me. My front tire hit the downward side of the second jump at a slight right angle. I could see the tire in slow motion lose traction then continue on to right sliding sideways. I hit hard on my left side taking most of fall in my shoulder and bicep. God has blessed me with a great instinct on how to take a fall. Ask my wife and she'll tell you about the time I got throw forward off a horse.After freeing my foot from under the bike (luckily my feet popped out of the clips), I dusted off and tried again. This time I didn't fall but I was starting to fell it in my back. We rode home on the street to save time. D had to get home on time his mother was taking him somewhere. I was really happy on the trip home, and I hope that this is the start of a great family activity to share with friends. To end I will leave you with the only injury I sustained from my fall. Have a great week.
