It was a lovely and busy weekend. I had Friday off of work. Isaac had a camp out for Boy Scouts Friday night, so after dropping him off at school, Rick and I went shopping for some good hiking boots for Isaac. They are preparing for a 50 mile hike in the Wind River Range at the end of the summer so we wanted to make sure he had some good boots early in the season to break them in before the big trek.
We shopped at this great place in West SLC. Several outdoor clothing websites warehouse their goods in the building. The front office has computers with all the websites bookmarked. You request item numbers that they will pull for you to try on/buy. Along with the shoes for Isaac, I bought a cute biking jersey for $20, and Rick found a clearance base layer for skiing next year.
Ride 1
After picking up Isaac from school and getting him off with his scout troop, Rick and I decided to do an evening road bike ride around Draper. After reaching our turn around point, we both felt like we wanted to keep going. We ended up at the house where I grew up in Sandy.
Always fun to see the old neighborhood. I used to do this same ride in reverse, starting at the Sandy house and riding my mountain bike down to Draper. Before the area was developed, the area where my current home is located was a mountainside covered with riding trails. It was fun to ride the old route; although, I swear some of those hills on the roads between the two were much less steep when I was in my 20's!
It ended up about a 15 mile ride that I expect will become of our regular evening ride routes.
Ride 2
Saturday began with yard work, planting a few shrubs and tomatoes. Then we headed out for our first mountain bike ride of the season. Actually, we've done mostly road riding the past several years, so this was the first mountain bike ride in a long time.
We rode the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from Sunnyside Ave to Dry Gulch (with a few unintentional detours). I forgot how different mountain and road biking are from each other. Really the only similarity is that you pedal. I struggled getting my feet clipped in as they are very different from my road bike clips. This resulted in one minor fall and some major bruises.
I also saw two snakes on the trail- one was a rattlesnake that jumped into the brush as I turned the corner and nearly hit him.
At one point we decided to take a small single track that kept on the low side of the mountain. The trail turned out to dead end and we had to push our bikes up the mountainside to the main trail. I struggled and was thinking what a big wimp I've become. Then I had the realization that I'm 43 years old and doing the same things I enjoyed in my 20s- not too shabby. If 20 year old me could see 43 year old me, I would have thought I was awesome. (haha) It is fun to realize that parts of my life now are what I pictured I wanted them to be when I was younger.
I wish a had a pic from the ride (beside the bruise). It is a pretty trail that overlooks the whole valley. It was a lot of fun. Rick loved the mountain bike we found for him (great deal used). I think we'll enjoy alternating between road and mountain rides this summer.
Mother's Day
The boys spent the weekend at their mom's house so I got presents early (not a bad deal). They gave me all kinds of fun biking gear (knickers for colder rides, a new heart rate monitor, and a new saddle for my mountain bike).
Sunday after church we went to my parents and had a big dinner with the family. We were in charge of dessert so Rick made crepes. Yummy. We came home and watched the Survivor finale and Once Upon a Time finale. Much needed relaxing after a busy weekend.
