Mountain Biking...

Let me just start by saying we have never been mountain biking, do not own mountain bikes and did not plan on going mountain biking... it just sort of happened.

What a wonderful adventure it was! We went to Cooper's Rock State Park and planned to bike the paved road for about three miles out and back and record the birds we saw, since the fall warbler migration is on. When we were driving in the truck, we kept seeing people on their bikes on the trails in the distance, and thought, "What the heck!"

So off we went on the roadside trail. Surely with a name like that, it can only be but so frightful. We followed the roadside trail for a little way to a pond. Then turned off onto another trail that was leading us down to a place we'd been before - we knew where we were going, no big deal. Two miles of straight downhill rocky path and we arrived at the Henry Clay Iron Furnace. I thought, "Even though we're all downhill and not getting much exercise, at least we are having fun." Whoa, I was wrong.

What we hadn't bargained for is that by going the two miles down hill the one way, we had to come back five miles up hill the other way... and then there was a torrential downpour. To top it all off, the park closed at sundown and we were miles away from the truck when the sky turned dark. So Julian raced ahead to get to the truck and come back and get me.

Its a good thing that it doesn't happen like in the movies - we didn't end up with pneumonia and had to stay and Pemberley for the week.