I was all prepared to hate being out in the 'wilderness' but it was so breaktakingly beautiful the anxiety of being around bugs, animals and heights didn't even faze me.
What did faze me was the idea that I was going on a bike trek with Jeremiah and Grandma T, both seasoned and tough bike riders. Grandma T rides every week and has gone on super duper, unbelievably long bike expeditions, and Jeremiah was a bike messenger in Pittsburgh for a couple years. If he can ride all over Pittsburgh for eight to ten hours a bike trail isn't going to bother him one little bit.
Also, I had the super heavy beach cruiser with my giant baby on the back of it. Grandma T graciously switched with me for a bit, but I felt like the child I brought into this world was my burden to bear biking style...so I wanted to persevere although my legs felt like jelly and I was covered in more sweat than the ubiquitous whore in church.
So, we go down the trail and to Grandma T's credit, it was very flat and incredibly scenic. We pass the two mile marker and I think, "Two Plus Two equals Four..." we pass the 3 mile marker and Grandma T starts to talk about some trail that is much higher up and you have to go up some crazy steps to get up to it...I'm barely listening cause I'm thinking there's no way I can handle much more biking today. She says that trail is coming up soon though, so I thought the least I could do was try, or look like a candy ass whiner.
At Five Miles we reach the bottom of the steps to go to the second trail...we get up the high steps with the baby and the bikes and at the top it's just amazing. We're on this way high up bridge and the whole Allegheny River is stretched out before us. It was enough that Grandma T said there were many more bridges to come on the trail to entice me to ride another mile. We end up riding 4.5 miles (Grandma T took a turn riding with Elijah) and I was so beat I felt a little delirious. I didn't help that Jeremiah hadn't even broken a sweat and looked super cute and composed still. I was a mess and still can't believe I made it back to our car in one piece, let alone able to walk and talk.
And now onto the photos of the beautiful bike trail and said Mess!
7 comments:
That trail looks gorgeous! I probably would have pushed myself to keep going, too, for those views. Also, I was looking at the pictures on the previous post, and your children are adorable. I think the girls look a lot like you, and you can definitely see Jeremiah in Elijah's eyes, I think. Of course, that's just the opinion of a random blogger whose only seen a few pictures of y'all. I'm glad you had such a great weekend!
I hope that you've recovered better than I have after my mountainous adventure from Sunday (which I didn't bring a camera for...though the sights were nowhere near as scenic as your pics).
In retrospect, I've decided that--no matter how badly I want to make my daughter laugh--doing squats is a bad idea.
I'm proud of you!! (and living vicariously through you, because I would probably have ridden my bike off the bridge in blind exhaustion.)
What an inspiring place to ride!
You look like you did just fine! You're smiling and glowing and it looks like it was a good time!
I need to buy a bike!!
My family is going NORTH for the weekend...daddy time for him and the kids and quiet time for me...maybe I will buy myself a bike and check out some new areas of my town.
(And maybe I will sit heavily on the couch eating bon bons and watching some mommy movies :o)
Great pics...love bridges like that.
You did better than I would have. I'd probably have been sacked out around the 1 mile marker.
That picture of Teresa and Elijah is fantastically adorable!
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