horse gulch goodness

Monday- time for one more quintessential mtb ride- gotta feed the Yeti!  We chose to sample some of that schweet tread in the Horse Gulch area.  Tell the truth, neither of the kids cared much for the early start, nor for the steep mile climb to start the ride.  Catching our breath at the bottom of the meadow trail network, I thought I just may have triggered a mutiny as I explained the gameplan for the morning.  The  imposing sight of Telegraph Ridge in the distance proved a bit too much to contemplate.  Rather than force the point, we decided to press onward and reassess our agenda in stages. I managed to correct part of the problem by adjusting the girl's clunky gearing, while the boy seemed to be warming up with the exercise, atta boy!

At the foot of Telegraph Hill, we pulled up and I offered a vote: forgo the climb (and the challenge offered!), or take the road most traveled, it was really fine either way.  Really!  We would all have fun biking together, no matter the trail.  For a moment we weigh the options, sucking on our camelbacks, eyeballing The Ridge towering above.  My darlin wife offers a few soft words of encouragement, bless her.  And the boy!  With impeccable 8-year-old comedic timing intones our favorite lines from Avatar, you know when the Colonel gives the FNG's their first briefing on Pandora?  Gesturing over to The Ridge- 'You're not in Kansas anymore...you're on PanDOra.  Out there.....everything that walks, flies, squats in mud, will just as soon kill you...and eat your eyes for jujubees.'  That laugh sealed it, hands up, Telegraph Ridge it is!

Hats off to the girl here: from grumbles to resignation to challenge to absolute and total Domination, she rocked that climb!  The evident pride in her voice as she recounted her daring ascent was the best gift she could have given this Dad, lemme tell you.  Wish you could have seen her beaming upon receiving her kudos from other biker chicks completing the same ascent.   That's my girl!

Recovered topside, we interject Newton's First Law of Mountain Biking: what goes up, must come down, in rip-roaring Roughrider fashion!  The rest of the morning we made the most of what Horse Gulch offers best- twisty runs, swoopy downs, bringing out the kid in all four of us!

And with hard work comes great reward: showers & swim at the Rec Center, deli lunch, chocolate-dipped chocolate ice cream all fit the bill just right after 3 days of roughing it in the woods.  Whew, what a weekend! :-o

Once again I'm reminded I simply have the best team on the planet- luv you Roughriders!