Vacation Idea #26 - Bicycling

WISH i was on HOLIDAY

A summer feature on Holiday Haven

- Vacation Idea #26 -

Bicycling

One of the sports my active family has taken up since our littlest one was born is recreational bike riding. Our longest trip to date was twenty-two miles along the Centennial trail in Snohomish, WA. Eleven miles out, turned around, and eleven miles back, not too bad for an amateur. I was sore the next day, but not as much as one would expect from that sort of trip. All of our kids held up well and we checked in with them frequently. We have since been on quite a few recreational trails the photos below are from Wenatchee's Apple Capital trail which we are going on again later this summer.

The cost:

If you learn how to change the tires on a bike, which is hard to learn, but easy once you learn how, you  will find that good bikes are given out nearly free. At garage-sales, on freecycle, in thrift shops, etc. You will need a bike rack for your car. We found one for about $60 on e-bay that was trunk mount (trunk mount means you don't need a hitch) and fit all 4 of our bikes on a regular car. I have seen trunk mount racks in Walmart for three bikes for around $30. And we needed a ride behind baby carrier. That was the most expensive part the cheapest we could find went for around $100. but finally found a nicer used one on craigs-list. Once you have all the equipment in place this sport is nearly free and while you may need to upgrade or do repairs occasionally it is usually in smaller, less expensive, chunks.

Our little one loves his carrier, he sleeps in it most of the time, but when he is awake he looks out the sides and is so happy to be going for a ride. The newer carriers do not tip over even if the bike does, you can lay the bike on the ground and the carrier stays upright.

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What to take:

Everyone wears helmets. And we take along a safety/tool kit backpack with: bandaids, a screwdriver, bike multi tool, bike pump, patches, bike tubes, zip-ties, chain tools, bee sting kit, and aspirin. And other essentials to include water (lots of water), sports drinks, cell phones, and some food. It is also handy to check if there are bathrooms along your rout. If not, you may want to include some T.P.

Rules on the trial: 

1. Yield to anything slower. i.e. bikes yield to skaters, skaters yield to walkers. 2. Yield to uphill traffic. It takes momentum to get up those hills, if they have to stop for someone going downhill, this is just unfair. 3.Say 'on your left' and pass slower traffic on the left. 4.Leave room on the left for others to pass you, this is especially important if you are traveling as a group. 5.Stop at stop signs. Look and listen.

To find bike trails I start at Bikely.com. click on their advanced search and select 'recoreational' or 'low traffic'. They will show you a map and some details. They are a good place to start, but I find their details limited so I take the information I find there and research it further in google.