A Ride in the Park

I have always enjoyed riding bikes.  So why hadn't I ridden my bike in several years?  We live in a perfect spot for it.  Just left out of the driveway and down to the end of the street, takes us into Sligo Creek Park where we can ride several miles either upstream or down.

Last summer when granddaughter Rachel was coming to visit, we thought she might bring her bike, and I got our bikes ready. It had been so long since they had been ridden, that the tires were all flat.  But the car was full, so the bike was left at home, and we found other things to do.

Something made me think of it again - perhaps the cooler than normal summer weather we've been having - and I suggested to Pam that we could go for a ride if we got a nice weekend day.  Yesterday I checked out the bikes.  Indeed, sitting around for a year, all the tires were flat.  I pumped them up, and checked them this morning - they had held the pressure just fine.

After lunch today we headed out and down the hill, a little unsteady at first.  My main challenge was relearning how the shifters worked.  I didn't get back to it being second nature, but achieved a functional level of competency.

We headed up the trail, past Forest Glen Road and Dennis Avenue to University.  We might have turned around there, but decided to cross the busy road and explore the trail on the other side, which we had never been on.

Then Pam saw a sign that said 0.9 mi to Wheaton Regional Park, and we decided to go check that out.  It's a large park with a riding stables, a small train, and Brookside Gardens, a lovely place that we've been to a number of times that also has a seasonal butterfly exhibit.  We entered a trail on the south end of the park and did a loop that took us near the train - that's how we discovered its existence.  Had we known last month we could have taken grandsons Andrew and Lucas on that one.  

Then we headed back.  The downstream gradient on the return trip made for easy pedaling.  We stopped to see a browsing deer that was very accustomed to people and let us hang out just a few feet away.  Closer to home we say another deer with a half grown fawn, its coat still spotted.

Just a little jaunt, 8 miles round trip, but thoroughly enjoyable, and making the question of why we've neglected this activity for so long.  Just stuck, I guess.