RR: LPQ with Rachel

It was a gorgeous Sunday day today, and since we stayed close to home for church, Rach suggested we go on a bike ride together. She had suggested we ride a couple of times over the last few months, but something kept getting in the way. I was thrilled at her interest, and committed to stay on target this time and get out on the trail together.

Rach made peanut butter sandwiches before we left, and we planned to stop at the waterfall mid-ride to eat lunch. Rachel would be riding the Gary Fisher Napa that we had bought her last year. Its kind of a hybrid mountain bike/cruiser, but it has a front suspension fork and knobby tires, and she had done fine with it at LPQ a couple of times in the past.

We started from the Canyonside Park trailhead and were on our way. I encouraged Rach to ride around the parking lot for a few minutes to get re-accostomed to being on the bike after not riding for several months, but before I could finish my suggestion she was 30 yards away and heading up the dirt trail. So much for a pavement warm-up.

We spun along the first fairly flat section of the trail that goes through along the canyon floor. I encouraged Rachel to shift as we came up to small hills, just to make the ride easier, but she preferred to stay in one gear. I'm not sure whether it was because she was uncomfortable shifting, or just liked pedaling in a harder gear, but she seemed to do just fine using her method so I resisted the urge to over-coach her. All I cared about was whether she was having fun, and she seemed to be. I took this shot over my shoulder early on in the ride:


As we rode along the fire road/doubletrack that makes up most of the canyon trails at LPQ, I noticed Rach migrate toward a singletrack offshoot that paralleled the main trail. (I don't mean one of the closed singletrack trails that goes in the trees near the creek, this was just a small, 30 yard parallel trail that had probably been created by people avoiding puddles in the main trial last winter.) In any event, I was excited that my wife would choose singetrack over fire road without being told, and I mentioned to her that I was proud of her choice and that she was thinking like a true mountain biker. Her response brought me back to earth, however, when she replied, " Oh, this little trail just had less rocks than the big trail, so I thought it would be easier." Hard to argue with that logic...

We reached the waterfall after about 20 minutes, and sat for a while enjoying the scenery and eating our sandwiches. After a little while we hiked down closer to the water and took a few pictures. Here's one:

It was a beautiful day, a little warm for the end of September but with a nice breeze. We briefly contemplated riding down to Wagon Wheel crossing and riding the trail on the south side of the canyon back to the cars, but decided not to push it on Rach's first ride in a while.

After a half hour or so at the waterfall, we packed up our remaining food and headed back the way we came. The ride back went smoothly as well, and I was proud of Rach for powering through a small section of babyhead rocks that made her a little nervous. She also successfully rode up a semi-steep drainage ditch that I thought she would have to walk, which was impressive. All in all, she seemed to enjoy herself, and I definitely did.

I was excited that my wife would suggest riding today, because its such a big part of my life that its a blessing to share it with her whenever I can. I'm not sure she'll ever enjoy it as much as I do, or want to do more advanced trails and whatnot, but I'll take what I can get and appreciate the times we do ride together. Hopefully it won't be seven months before we ride together again like it was this time. I have a feeling it won't.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 5.88 miles
Total Time: 1:15:14
Ascent: 220 feet
Average Speed: 4.7 mph
Top Speed: 13.0 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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