My Kids are Rockstars

Or, an overview of two great rides for early, eager riders.

Or, how to bribe your kids up a bunch of hills with the promise of tasty snacks. 

Or, look, let’s admit it, we are obsessed with Kingdom Trails. 

Before we dive into this post, let me first say that we did not intend to take our children on difficult trails on this trip. Charles is just now comfortable on his pedal bike, and Theo is fully 2 1/2 – alternately brilliant and charming or whiny/screaming/throwing a tantrum, all very articulately and utterly unpredictably. After our ride with our friends, we all took the boys down to the pump track behind The Hub, and it took a fair amount of cajoling to get them to even leave for a ride on Bemis – a trail they’ve ridden before, several times, but still collapsed on in the first 100 feet and announced they were just too exhausted to ride.

Once we got into the rhythm of riding, we all enjoyed each other as a family again. The boys were cheerful and observant; Charles was brave enough to start pedaling over some roots; we took a pit stop for some kids’ Larabars where Bemis and Loop join and snapped a few pictures of happy kids itching to ride more. Because they were so enthusiastic, we kept going on Loop, intending to come out near Mountain View Farm, where we’d end our ride and send a grown-up to fetch a car and drive us back to Wildflower Inn.

But the trails leading to Mountain View were closed (OH NO!), so we took a very pretty detour through a field and up a steep hill, re-entering the woods and finding ourselves at a totally unmarked intersection. A nice man out with his daughter met us having just descended the trail we were considering ascending, and informed everyone present that it was Poundcake. A black diamond. And the shortest route out.We talked in low tones about turning around, although that would have meant a three mile ride back for our tired kids. My husband finally rode ahead to check out the trail, and, given how close we were to the farm, he decided we should try it with the kids.

They freaking killed it.

Emerging victorious in the parking lot of the Inn at Mountain View, my oldest said, “Can we ride some more?” And we took the road back to Wildflower, with only a few boosts to get them up the hills. No need for a rescue ride in the car. They rode into the parking lot by Village Sport Shop Trailside to cheers and “awws” from onlooking groups of adults.

My kids are rockstars. 

 

The next day, Charles sulked and gave the sitter attitude while my husband and I rode in the morning. He devoured a hot dog with great gusto at lunch, and announced he was ready to hit the trails. We had scoped out a route on our ride – now that we knew they could climb Poundcake, we were tired of riding Bemis with them. So we took them on a route at the south end of the trails.

Once again, they killed it. We’d been looking forward to riding all of Culvert Cut with them, but the skies opened up and we decided we’d better turn around. By the time we got back to the road, it was sunny again. We stopped for a snack, let them run around [how do they have energy for riding and running?], and set off down Border. A trail that starts in a field, enters the woods, and has a rooty, knobby descent: no problem for these guys. Snack in a clearing bordered by wild raspberries, accompanied by the songs of a wood thrush and song sparrow: magical.

 

 

Climbing out on Old Webs, the grumpiness set in. Charles flopped over on his bike several times, declaring it “too hard.” Theo plodded along rather cheerfully, musing, “Mommy, do birds have teef? Can dey eat raspberries?” and only whining when his brother stopped. We crawled up the trail at snail’s pace; I grew irritated; my husband, luckily, had the genius to let them pick raspberries as we went up. The frequent stops for fruit, as annoying as I found them, got us up the trail. To the chorus of, “I don’t want to go up any more hills, where’s my downhill?” – a feeling I totally get – we emerged onto Up and Downing. Charles and my husband flew back to the car, happy to finally ride fast. Theo and I brought up the rear, pretending our bikes were rally cars and “vroooooom”-ing our way back well behind the two of them. All-in-all, a successful ride.

Those two are rock stars. Despite their complaining, they get an A+ for effort and riding. They both took on roots bigger than their bike tires, zoomed along narrow trails, and hopped easily over rocks. Their infectious enthusiasm for trail riding even when it’s hard reminds me that it’s okay to push our kids a little, as long as the family is together and we can keep it fun!