During the last couple weeks we’ve had some really nice weather. This weekend it was in the 70’s which is about 20 degrees warmer than normal. I had a few things I wanted to get done on the house but I also wanted to take advantage of the weather.

Danielle, my almost 4 year old, had been wanting me to take her in the bike trailer. She was wanting to go over the “big bumps” which means the BMX jumps by the bike path along Mark Dabling. Cassidy wanted to go too but she hates the “big jumps”. Danielle talked Julie into coming too. I hadn’t been on the jumps recently but the 3 on the north end have always been rideable pulling the Burley although they make me a little nervous. The Burley seems really well designed and stable. I don’t it would be smart to take less well made trailers over the them. This time the I found the BMXers had dug out the top of the 3rd and biggest jump. I caught a pedal and something caught on the Burley but I thought stopping could be worse than riding it out. Fortunately I stayed upright and the trailer didn’t tip.

We rode up to Ice Lake and let the kids get their feet wet. On the way back home, Danielle wanted to do the jumps again. Cassidy wasn’t about to go over them again so Julie held her while I did them a couple times. I don’t think that’s much over 14 miles round trip but pulling an extra 70 pounds made it feel longer.

At lot of times, I do the old Manitou Incline on Sunday afternoon because we go to my parents for lunch. The live almost to Manitou so it reduces my driving. Every time I go, Danielle has been begging to hike it with me. I decided to take her along since it was such a nice day and with the extra daylight we could take our time. It wasn’t very far until she said she was tired. She actually had good reason to be tired. It was the neighbor boy’s birthday and she had ridden 1 1/2 miles to a park and played for a couple hours.

I coaxed her along until we got to the Cog’s No Trespassing sign and then I put her in the Kelty pack. For a few minutes, I kept hearing about how we were nearly to the top. I knew much better. After a bit there was silence and soon her head fell on my shoulder. She snored most of the way up. I’ve never taken over an hour and my best time has been 29 minutes. Sunday it took me almost an hour and 15 minutes. It’s amazing what nearly an extra 40 pounds will do on something like that.

As soon as we got to the top, Danielle woke up and was full of energy. She was having fun running around and climbing on the rocks. It’s about 2 1/2 miles down Barr Trail to the trailhead. She ended up hiking the whole way down! Actually she ran more than she hiked. About a mile from the bottom, we meet Julie coming up with Cassidy. Cassidy wanted me to carry her so I got some more backpacking training.

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