Biking Adventure!

Today we decided that it would be fun to take the boys "mountain" biking. So, we headed out to Kettle Moraine State Forest, west of Milwaukee. We started on the easy route which was a mile and a half. The boys breezed through that route, with comments like, "this is awesome" and "I've never had so much fun!". We still thought it was a bit challenging for them but we decided to do it again. Then, after one more run, which by now was considered 'way too easy', we decided to take on the next level, a 4 mile route.

Off we went. All was going well for the first 45 minutes until we came to a fork in the road. We read signs and headed along on our route (in the opposite direction of the experienced bikers who had just passed us!). On we went, thinking it would soon be over . . . up big hills, through mud holes and sand pits, down rocky hills and over many huge tree roots and rocks. AJ bounced off of a tree or two, Matthew slid on his bike down a couple of hills and, 45 more minutes later, we began to fear that we took the wrong route! Our fears were confirmed when another family with older boys told us that we were actually on the hardest route. . .a 10 mile route! OH MY!! Our one bottle of water was long gone, we were tired of running into trees and bouncing off of rocks, and it was stinkin hot!

We pressed on, passed our bikes over downed trees, under downed trees, walked up more and more rocky hills, zig-zagged through crazy woods with sharp turns and made our way to what we hoped would be the end. Finally, after riding about 7 miles, we were able to cut out of the hard route and back over to our "easier" route. All told, we were riding (and walking and very rarely complaining) our bikes in the woods for over 3.5 hours.

We have the coolest kids ever! On the way out, we ran into a guy who took our picture and we told him we ended up on the blue route and he commented, "OOOH! My wife and I were terrified that that would happen to us!"

It was definitely an adventure that we will never forget!

P.S. I can't believe I forgot the best part! Justin's pedal and crank arm fell off around Mile 4. You can imagine the fun of pedaling with one foot up and down the terrain!