October 11th (Trail clearing with the family!)

Today is Monday, Thanksgiving day! I am thankful for my wonderful wife and adorable 4 kids for sure. I’m thankful for a good season of riding that is still going. I’m thankful for a great trail network!!! I’m also thankful that my family allows me to drag them along such a long hike just to clear a tree off of the trail…

Yep, as it’s a holiday today so I didn’t ride to work obviously. Instead, we all packed up a nice picnic lunch and went on a two hour hike. We hiked in from Rose Hill road along the pipeline section and Frolek’s lower road. We then hiked up to my single-track and continued along the single-track until we got to the tree that fell across my trail this past Thursday. I brought with me an axe and a hand saw (the tree wasn’t that big) and when we got there I got to work sawing the tree and removing it from the trail. I wasn’t quite fast enough, though, as two female mountain bikers came along just before I had it cleaned up and still had to hike around… Oh well!) Once the tree was cleared away, Corrie went to work getting ride of some of the larger branches that hung over the trail. In the end, the trail is nice and open again, and ready for my ride in the morning! I even pushed over another tree nearby that was threatening to fall over the trail later (yes, I said pushed… That’s how dead and rotten these trees are!)

After that, we hiked over to the middle gulley trail and took it down to Frolek’s road which we followed back to home. It was a great hike, and the kids did great. Graedy fell asleep on my shoulders on the way back, so I ended up carrying him in my arms while Corrie managed to haul the tools, baby and keep Taryn and Levi moving. We took a few pictures which you can check out below.

A neat, big, old tree at the beginning of the single-track trail.

The kids in front of that tree… Trying to get them all to smile at the same time is becoming quite a feat!

And now all of us together… Yes, even the dog!

Having lunch… Chocolate pudding for G-Man as you can see!

Levi as well… Maybe they’re just going for Dad’s goatee look?

Hmmm… And I was complaining earlier about the kid’s not smiling? I wonder where they get that from?

Ave’s chilling in the grass…

The reason we came in the first place. I forgot to get a picture before or during the work, but at least here is an “after” shot with what’s left of the tree on the left.

It was a great hike, although Corrie and I are more tired than the kids are it would seem… It was a pretty good day for it, too. Sunny and clear skies on our hike there, but overcast and windy on our way back (although the temperature was still OK). Thanks, family!