Best ride ot the year.

[turbomax]

I just finished school for the year so I thought I would go for a ride to celebrate. I asked my dad if he wanted to go up to north Georgia to ride on Friday, I was thinking motorcycles he was thinking bicycles. So of course I could not pass up on an opportunity to ride with the old man. We went to Bear Creek in Ellijay, I was thinking a non technical climb with a fun down hill. We get up there and it was colder than we expected and raining. It's mountain biking so we sucked it up and started riding. My dad is 57 with two new knees, and two spinal fusions, one at the neck and the other in his lower back. I knew the climb would not be easy for him and with the weather I did not want to get to far away from him, but I had no idea how slow he would be. I made the best of it by going up a few minutes then turning around to check on him. The climb took forever and I had to break the down hill in sections to keep an eye on him. If it were a normal ride I might have said that it sucked, but spending the day on the bike and in the mountains with my dad made it awesome. It was also pretty cool to think that 20 years ago we were doing the same thing with the roles switched, now I know why my dad took me riding all the time. I can't wait till I get to start doing it with my son.

[scottheckles]

I did a similar ride with my dad a few years ago. We (my wife, two sons and I) met my parents (who were both about 60 y/o at the time) at Fort Mountain for some camping, hiking and biking. My dad has had one knee and one shoulder replacement, but rides a hybrid on pavement about 5 or 10 miles a day, about 6 days a week... but, they live in Lower Alabama at sea level with no hills to think of... anyway, from his history of motor cross and some shared mountainbike trips, I knew he could handle most trails rides that I had planned for us. My oldest son was about 10 y/o at the time and had ascended/descended Bear Creek once and had the technical chops... so, I had my wife shuttle us to the top of Bear Creek overlook, where we (my dad, my son and myself) dropped in on the Bear Creek trail and descended to Gates Chappell Rd. It was a blast, my son lead the way, I had my dad riding my Santa Cruz Heckler with the suspension set up nice an plush for him while I rode my Gary Fisher Sugar... once he got used to the speed and quit worrying if my son was going "over the edge" he had a great ride. We met my wife @ Gates Chappel rd, I asked if he wanted to do another run, he said "yes", so I had her drive us back up to the gate where Pinhoti 2 starts, then we rode Pinhoti 2 down towards P3. It was a sweet ride, he handled the climbing part as good as I expected and did fine on the descent. It's a bike trip that I never will forget. we also rode some stuff on Ft Mountain without any major carnage. Having 3 generations of family on the trail together is an experience that can't be explained esily outside of the cycling tribe
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