Gone Triking Again

We should have been packing for our upcoming trip, but that’s not what we were doing this morning.  After consecutive days of ‘this is how it must be inside a furnace’ temps that felt like 105F (41C) thanks to the humidex, we could not resist going out for another trike ride.  We needed to pick up my CamelBak hydration pack from the Phaeton, so we headed to Bull Run Regional Park to kill two birds with one stone :-)

After parking near the entrance, unfolding our bikes, and gearing up, we had a bit of fun on the deserted side road before heading off for a longer ride on the main road.

A 43-second video of us goofing around.

A nice breeze and plenty of shade made for perfect trike riding conditions.  The flapping of our colorful ‘we’re here; don’t run us over’ flags was the only sound to break the morning’s silence until we came upon two hawks calling to each other.  We watched them for a while from our trike seats, our quiet approach allowing us to get surprisingly close to the base of the tree where one was perched.  No photos; I’m afraid — too many branches in the way.

Except for the occasional car heading out from the campground towards town, traffic was nil.  The campers were still fast asleep, and we were the only ones out and about to enjoy the sun streaming through the trees, burning off the light fog.

There’s a small pond not far from the campground store.  At first, we planned to stop there to eat our breakfast bars, but there were too many gnat-like bugs.  Pedaling back towards whence we came, we found another spot instead.  Bugs there, too.  So, we just munched away at our breakfast while sitting in our trikes and quickly high-tailed it out of there.

All in all, I did somewhere around 4-5 miles (6.5-8 km) on this run.  Mui wanted to do a high-speed pedal on our second time around the park, so he got in more mileage today than I did.  By 9:30a, with the temps starting to reach into the 80F (27C) range, we were ready to call it quits.  Not only was there work to do at home, but it also didn’t make sense to over-tire our muscles and pay the piper later!  (So far, no aches or pains — that’s a good thing!)

A bit of biking humor to end this post :-)))

Alert, Alert!  the aliens abducted a triker at bull run.  Only her shoes were left behind :-)

(For those who are not bikers: these shoes snap onto the pedals so that we can pedal at speed without worrying about our feet slipping off.  They also make for a smoother, more comfortable pedaling experience.  With the shoes on our feet, we sit down and snap the shoes onto the pedals.  A slight twist of the ankle frees the foot from the pedal — shoe and all.)