Pedaling in the Pine Nuts

One day, after a lovely morning with some family, we returned home after brunch. For a while, we were sitting around the house when my Daddy searched on the phone for a trail we could ride on our new bikes. It would be our first time on a trail with them!

While I was watercoloring, Daddy found a place for new mountain bikers to start: the pine nuts!

He thought that was perfect!

We packed some snacks, sweaters, and jackets, then filled up our water bottles and tucked them into the holders on our bikes. Then we got our helmets and gloves.

We also got our English cream retriever ready, Finley! We gave him his leash, and he carried it with his mouth for fifteen minutes with his wagging tail, showing off to everyone like he always did. It was very cute!

After that, we packed our bikes in the back of the truck, and it was time to set out on our biking adventure!

While we were driving the dirt road, which was a shortcut to the pine nuts, Daddy told us which trail we would go on. The app said it was a beautiful trail and had these colors for the difficulty levels. Green was for easy, and yellow was medium-hard, then red for hard. The app showed the trail we were going to as a green one. The app also said it would be a half-hour bike ride, which we thought was the perfect amount of time to be on the trail, especially for our first time.

The (Mis?) Adventure Begins

 When we arrived, we put our bicycles back together and Daddy began showing us how to use the gears and brakes on our bikes. At first, my sister, Jane, and I had difficulty getting the hang of the gears on our new bikes but we learned quickly while practicing in the dirt parking lot. Daddy felt we had it down enough to start on the trail!

Even in the beginning, the trail was steep going uphill.

Jane and I were having a hard time but Mommy had it the worst because Mommy and Daddy noticed her bike was broken! So Mommy went up the hill slowly but pushed on like a pro! 

When we got higher and higher, the trail got narrower and narrower… that was when everyone got grizzly.

Ten to fifteen minutes later, we found four older people hiking on the trail trodding our way.

With our bikes, we went to the side of the trail to give them space to go past us, but when the other three people went right past us, the last person stopped on the side to talk to us. She told us that her organization made this trail and all the others in the valley.  She also mentioned that the trail we were on was for people with experience in mountain biking who wanted a short ride, and she recommended we try a different trail for our level of mountain biking.

She shared some information about an easier trail not too far from us. She also mentioned a meeting they would do the following week, but we never had the chance to go. After that little talk, she said goodbye, and we went different ways.

To Turn Back Or To Pedal On?

We were halfway to the top of the hill, but it was still a long time to get there, at least for us. Daddy and I finally took a break to drink some water.

Mommy and Jane had just gotten up the hill.

That was when Jane started to get emotional about the trail being too narrow and feeling overwhelmed. Then, Daddy debated whether the trail was too much for us, but Mommy wanted to keep going.

After we all encouraged each other, we all decided to not give up.

We decided to pedal on. Whether that was a good idea, only time would tell.

On Top of the World

Reaching the top took us a while, but we made it!

That was when we had to think about which of the two routes to take.

Daddy was searching the map for the details of each path. He told us that the first one just did a little loop to the path we did before. The second path took us to our truck but in a different way, and Daddy thought it was easier and fun to go on the second trail, so we did.

When we started to go on the trail, it started to get very bumpy and as we went downhill there were giant boulders to dodge. That was a little intense.

We made it to the other side of the hill and it was time for a good break, Finley laid in the shade.

I was exhausted and it seemed to be the same for Finley by his whining.

We put down our bikes and found a spot to sit on the dirt. Daddy pulled the snacks out of his backpack. He insisted that I have some chocolate chips because I was tired.  I ate some chocolate chips and some macadamia nuts.

I started to feel a lot better.

We also found a birthday cake cookie that we all shared, even with Finley. He especially enjoyed it. We started to notice that Finley needed water. We tried to give him water by squirting it from our bottles, but he didn’t like that, so Mommy will order his own special doggy water bottle.

After some rest, snacks, and water, we felt ready to get back on the trail.

Going Downhill Fast

When we were going down the hill, it was getting steeper and steeper, which made me tense and nervous with all those boulders. The trail felt narrower than before; I felt like I was going to run off the mountain!

At that point, I started to walk down the hill. Mommy was nice and walked down with me until I was ready to go on my bike again. At the trail's end, I got on my bike and went down the rest of the hill when we got to the truck.

Finally, we got to the truck after a two-hour ride that was supposed to be a half-hour!

Jane and I went in the truck while Mommy and Daddy got the bikes in the back.

Jane and I were so exhausted that we fell asleep while I listened to Mommy and Daddy talk about how much harder the trail was than they expected.

We dropped everything at home and then went to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Mommy and Daddy even let us get a special rice drink called horchata. It was such a treat!

After that delicious dinner, we went home and went straight to bed. We were that tired. Even Finley didn’t wake up for dinner. It took him a week to recover!

This is the end of this adventure.

I hope you enjoyed my story about our first mountain biking trip! Though the trail was much harder than we thought for our first time mountain biking, I am excited to try another trail soon!

In fact, we have our next mountain biking adventure planned in just a couple more weeks, so stay tuned!