A big reason we wanted to spend our vacation in
Boulder was the fact that it is a major bike city. Nationally recognized as 'the fittest city in the nation', there are bike lanes throughout the city, and everywhere is connected by trail. Stefan had a good time, I think, just looking up where we'd go on our bikes when we got there. Although we only had 5 days of vacation, and two of them were driving, we had plenty of time to make multiple bike treks in the mountains.
Stefan has been an off-road biker since he was in junior high, and although I love a good bike ride (and spinning happens to be my favorite form of exercise) I had never biked 'off the beaten track', so to speak, until I met him. When we were dating and first married we often went off-road biking around Lincoln and Omaha on the single-track dirt paths, which for a first timer were challenging, but quickly grew boring...especially for Stefan.
We bike on dirt trails in Lincoln all the time with the kids in the trailer (we can never really go father than 15-20 miles with them...they start to get irritated with each other in the cramped area!) but these mountain paths were...um...
NOTHING like at home. Of course, we don't have mountains in Nebraska either, in case you missed that.
I have never seen trails like this, though they are what I assumed mountain bike paths to be like. I just didn't think it would be SO hard for me to do it, having never done it before. The pictures that you can see the path are actually very easy, I just stopped to take pictures where I thought there was a good view. The parts that I didn't stop to take, those were more challenging.
Yes, I made it over the picture above, and many areas like it. I did fall a couple of times, and I was very frustrated with myself, but we hit the trails hard and Stefan kept reminding me that I
"have never done it before so you're actually doing really well" but when you're more competitive with yourself than anyone else...let's just say I was a bit upset at times.
The key is to not hesitate and keep your momentum uphill....it's much easier said than done, especially when you get to a very rocky patch you have no idea how to climb with a bike going faster than you'd like!
This is a nice little rest spot over a bridge on the easy Canyon trail that follows the highway back into Boulder, I believe about 20 miles outside of town. The first day we did 3 mile loop at
Betasso Preserve (clockwise) and the next day we did 16 mile trek
Marshall Mesa. Both were considered "easy/moderate" trails and in 19 miles I: fell 3 times, landed 6 amazing bad bruises/cuts, cried a few angry tears, threw my bike, had amazing workouts, and walked about 1.5 miles. All in all it was a fun trip, though if you saw my pictures of where I fell you'd think I was insane.
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Moral of the story: We LOVE to be outside in the mountains and we love to be active. I had fun on my trip and I think I earned every single morsel of food that I ate...and I haven't even told you about our hikes yet!
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