Adventure calls!
Jonathan Biking
Originally uploaded by KneescarAfter Saturday's 42 mile abuse fest (road bike ride) I had an hour or two to relax before we headed up to the camp for part 2.
pathoffman , Logan, Hubby, and I set out for a casual little ride on mountain bikes. Hubby has not really done any cycling, and Pat just got his bike, so I figured that we would take it easy for a while. I figured that we would ride for half an hour and then return to drop hubby off at the camp while the rest of us went on a more strenuous ride.
Well, you know, the best laid plans of mice an men...
We ended up doing some exploring as a dirt road turned into a two track path, which meandered and ran through all kinds of posted property, and down some gnarly hills and through more land with posted sides. I kept trying to turn back in deference to Hubby's inexperienced butt and legs (leave it alone) and due to my own fear of getting shot. As usual, I voiced my concern enough times that Pat brought my manhood into question, and we pressed on. Every time we stopped for Hubby to catch up, I asked how he was doing, and he told me he was fine. the one descent was long and steep enough that we considered it the point of no return; I had a general Idea of the direction we were headed in, and I figured (hoped) we would intersect the road, and have an easy ride back to the camp on the road.
Well the path or trail we were riding traversed more and more posted / no trespassing signs, and eventually stopped! As we debated on whether to just turn around, or try to follow the vestigial remnants of the trail through what looked like Gollum's lair, Hubby made a decision and left us. I whipped it out (my iPhone, C'mon! we had kids with us) and used the maps feature to look for signs of help. Pat and I decided we should press on, but Hubby was out of earshot, so I had to go after him.
As I headed back the way we came, Jonathan yelled for me, and I discovered he had taken another (unridable, barely walkable) trail that cut up the hill to the left. When I caught up to him, I showed him what I saw on my iPhone map and we decided that maybe he was headed in the right direction. I tried calling for Logan and Pat, but it seemed that they were out of earshot too. I thought that the trail they were on would intersect the road as indicated on the map, so I assured Jonathan that his son would not be eaten by mountain lions, and we would meet him and Pat on the road.
You know, iPhone GPS has it's limits, especially when the battery is dying, and it relies on skynet to get the map data.. I kept seeing a blue dot that indicated "you are here" but with no cell signal, there were no maps to show us where "here" was exactly.....
We intesected a road path where trucks had traveled a few times. Jonathan turned right towards the real road, and I turned left to try and find where the other two might have intersected.
Too late for a short story, but I'll just share that there were some tense moments and one worried father before I finally got a call from Logan. They had turned around shortly after I left them and headed back up that bastard of a hill. I made it out to the road and headed to the camp.
Because he was covering ground while I was going the wrong way and listening for the sound of a mountain lion with idigestion, Jonathan made it back to the camp while I still had about 2 miles to go. I let him know where Pat and Logan were, and he was already headed my way with the truck. OF COURSE, I had no intention of accepting a ride when we crossed paths, and everybody made it to the camp unscathed. So since nobody died or lost a limb, this was a very cool adventure. My HRM said it was only a 2 hour adventure, but it seemed like more. Total bike time for the day = 5 hours; total calories burned = 4100. Oh boy was I starving! I almost chewed my hand off while Pat manned the grill that night.
Jonathan wasn't mad at me (that he'll admit) and he made it through Sunday without much pain or any outward effects of fatigue.
I'm so happy that we had this adventure together, and I'm so proud of Jonathan. This would certainly have killed him one year ago.