Much Better Than Racing

If you’ve been here for a while, then you’ve heard it before. Taking kids out to ride bikes is the best thing I do. Yesterday was another installment of the Tarheel Trailblazers Kids Ride, and I was glad to get back to it. I wear a lot of hats in the cycling community I guess. Vice President of my local mountain biking club, director of the local chapter of the National Mountain Bike Patrol, pretend roadie, pathetic racer, and even more pathetic blogger. The one of which I am the most proud is Kids Ride coordinator. Getting the youngin’s out on the trail is my greatest accomplishment. It doesn’t make me special or anything, but it makes me happy.

Yesterday we arrived at one of our most popular trails, Sherman Branch, and waited for the kids to arrive. Since the hurricane had no affect on us here locally (but did affect several of my friends and family), the ride was a go. It was one of the nicest days we’ve had around here in a long time, and I was looking forward to a big turnout. I wasn’t disappointed, because lots of little ones showed up to ride. Y’all know I don’t care for long, wordy posts on Mondays, so I’ll get right to the photos.

Here’s Lunchbox hitting one of the jumps out there:



And the rest of the kids (and grown-ups):





And of course a little “regular” trail time:















Little Miss Sunshine was there too:









We took a few breaks just to catch up and keep things fun:





Then it was back to the trail:










We had a blast. After the ride, we had the usual drinks and cookies, and all the kids were pretty worn out. They had fun, and I think I had just as much fun watching them have fun. Now that my race season is pretty much over, we can have quite a few more of these Kids Rides before winter shows up. Weather always plays a part in these rides, but I’m glad it didn’t hurt us yesterday. With a hurricane out there threatening us, I was a little worried that we might not get to ride. Irene left us alone, so I got lots of bike time in over the weekend. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more cycling crap and nonsense. You can bet on that.