Monday, May 21, 2012

Adventure 20- Merville trails

"Lets go Dad"
This long weekend was wonderful. Saturday the weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm. We began the day with a early morning trip to the Comox Valley Farmers Market for some tasty morsels for dinner. I purchased some free range chicken, grass fed bison, wild tuna and spot prawns. These wonderful gifts of our beautiful valley are helping me to follow along with the Paleo lifestyle that I have been researching and adopting. My grocery bill has increased because of it, but my conscious is clear, knowing that the animals that give their lives for my consumption are living a happy life. Eating the food they themselves were meant to eat and being given fresh air and room to roam and act as the critters they are. I will be writing a post about Paleo and why I chose this ideology at a later date. We made plans for my sister Mandy to come for dinner and a bike ride. Our choice for an adventure this week was to ride our bikes out on a trail in Merville. I won't go into detail on where this trail is, since it is on private land and would rather limit the amount of traffic in the area.

The trail
We left from the house and had to ride along the paved road for about a kilometer. Natalie has not had much experience at all with riding around cars, so I was particularly cautious. This section of road was also void of a paved shoulder, as with most rural roads in this area. The road was unusually busy on this long weekend because of a function that was happening close by. Natalie did great, staying close to the edge, not swerving out into the lane and not being nervous or skittish. We turned into a subdivision of acreages and follow a mostly flat route to the trail head.
Bratzki
The trail has been now opened up into a road again. I had never taken this route before and Sheena had said that it was a really nice double track trail before. Unfortunately, this is the case with private timberland and the road, although running in a beautiful forest, it was covered in ruts and loose gravel from the construction. It was still good riding, just not quite as perfect as it would have been before. Natalie was doing so well. Her attitude had returned to the happy, brave rider that I had before. She only had one crash when her front tire got stuck in one of the aforementioned ruts on a down hill, and it pulled her over. She suffered a bit of a scrap and some tears. I got her back on the saddle rather quickly, and with drops still running down her cheeks, she carried on and got braver. We got to the end of the trail and it forked. One way is washed out and has large lose boulders. I find this section really exciting, so we split. The girl ride went the dirt path. I missed out on some fun by the sounds of it. Natalie was riding over logs that littered the way. How cool! Mandy was getting more comfortable as well, and I think she is also falling in love with the sport. We met up again and traveled together back to the house.
Mermaid
Upon arriving, Natalie mentioned that she wanted to go swimming. Well it is decently warm out, not swimming weather by my measure, but sure why not. Down to the beach we go, three dogs, three grown ups and one eight year old who wants to go in the water. Marshall heads right in with no hesitation and swims circles around and around with no care in the world. Natalie slowly worked her way out to a boulder, falling down once and getting completely soaked. She didn't care to much. Brrrr. But I guess I was the one who did the polar bear swim this New Years day. It was a great end to a supreme day, and soon we were munching on a dinner made from delicious local ingredients and good company. Find Adventure.
Marshall
Willow, the new addition

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