And We're Off...Another Ride - Albion Trail

So we headed out for another bike ride up to Alta. The plan was to ride up the road to the top of the Albion ski lift in Alta. We had been told the rode was only open to bikers; however cars were driving up the road as well. We didn't think this would be safe for the kids to ride with cars on the road.







So we asked an employee if there was a different road we could take. He told us "oh yea, just take the utility road. It is really easy, even the kids can ride up it."




Being expert bikers that we are (ha ha ha) we decided to head up the utility road. A few hundred yards up the road and I knew we were in trouble! The road was practically straight up; maybe a few switchbacks, and mostly gravel. The bike ride turned into a 1.5 mile hike up the mountain pushing our bikes.


Definitely not the most fun bike ride; but one of the most memorable because it was so hard.



The scenery was very beautiful with lots of wild flowers all over the mountains. The temperature was very nice as well 65 degrees. And we even got rained on. Once we got started we had to keep going, because it was too steep to turn around and go back down with the kids. At the top of the lift we knew we could meet up with the road.

We finally made it. This was the first time Grandpa had joined us for one of our rides; not so sure he will ever go again. Definitely not the normal bike trip we usually go on. We loved that he was with us, and hopefully he will come again. I've never been so happy to see a road.







By the time we got to the top there was no question we were going to take the road back down the mountain!!!









It was a dirt road, but it was smooth. The only problem coming down the road was that it had just finished raining, so the dirt had turned to mud.




Megan loves riding behind Tom; she doesn't even have to pay attention to what she is doing. She's just along for the ride. Most of the time she is bouncing up and down on her seat singing at the top of her lungs.






The kids thought it was awesome! They were able to get muddy and it was actually o.k. We all made it down safely.

You've got to love mud!


After the ride we went up to Albion Basin camp ground for a picnic. So we found a table and set up dinner. We didn't know that you had to pay to use the picnic table.A little fruit, veggies, and chicken rice salad. Yum, Yum!! Right about the time we were just getting finished, the ranger came and said that we had to pay $8 to picnic. Megan said to the ranger "BUSTED". We were laughing so hard; even the Ranger thought it was pretty funny. Leave it to Megan. We love how she can come up with the perfect thing to say at the perfect moment.
We even had a visitor "chip".



After dinner Grandpa left and we decided to stay and ride a little longer. We kept shuttling everyone up the road, and then we would take turns riding down. This was a lot of fun.


Then Max decided he wanted to ride down the dirt trail we had walked up. Mom decided "what they hey...be a good Mom and spend some quality time with your son". So we started down the steep, gravel trail. All the sudden Mom's tire sunk into the gravel making the bike come to a complete STOP! Yep you guessed it, Mom proceeded to fly over the handle bars, flipping in the air and doing the body slide 10 ft. down the mountain. Ouch! Turned out o.k., only a few cuts, scratches, and rocks embedded into the skin. Other than feeling like being hit by a truck, Mom was o.k. and it still turned out to be a great day.

So sorry, there are no pictures of Mom doing tricks on her bike.