Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Time To Hit The Trail

While hiking around on Mt. Diablo I saw this group of teenagers ride up to the trail head. They were with an adult instructor and they were learning the finer points of trail riding. I was impressed because it is no easy feat to get to these trails by bicycle- the road is long and very steep so you have to work just to get there.

Trail Lessons

They could not have picked a better day. Now that the rains have passed everything is green and clean and smells wonderful. What a marvelous way to spend the hours after school! This will have a far greater impact on their futures than the silly homework they will have to do when they are finished. They will have spent time pushing their physical limits, learning how to respect the trail and each other, learning how to take growing confidence and translate it into action and cooperation with others. What a great day!

As they rode off I was envious of their youthful joints as well as their dirt bound adventures!

4 comments:

  1. Maybe they are so new to riding it didn't occur to them that they just rode up a steep hill ....sometimes not to know is just the best thing! That looks like a wonderful place to ride. The picture reminds me why I like to read everyone's bike blogs; you get to see parts of the world that are not on the normal, beaten, touristy path.

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  2. I think that the environmental impact of bikes is often overlooked. You can travel to beautiful, picturesque places without the loud noise of combustion engines or the pollution of exhaust. Bikes take us where we want to go on a fraction of the resources of a car or ATV!

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  3. I love this photo and it's certainly never too late to trail ride; I love it just as much as road riding and I'm ummm Forty-something :) and always feel like a kid and love it when I master those hills. You're too cool not to try it :)

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  4. are there mountain lions in the area?

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