We had a terrific Kidical Mass ride to celebrate Earth Day! 35 people was one of our larger groups and 5.5 miles (each way) was one of our longer rides which made we worry about everyone having enough fun more than normal, but it went well! The weather was perfect and that always helps. Photos photos photos are here.
We started the ride outside Husky Grind, a cafe alongside the Burke-Gilman Trail, for easy access to snacks and potties and room for kids to run around–that always makes for a non-stressful lengthy gathering-up process. I usually just start with an introduction and the Cascade Bicycle Club group ride safety briefing, but this time we did a sign-along, too. Big fun! (To the tune of “The More We Get Together”)
I thought it’d be more in line with Earth Day to skip the direct route/Burke-Gilman Trail to Magnuson Park and ride the hard-packed gravel of the East Campus Bicycle Path and cut through the Center for Urban Horticulture instead. This made for some hills, like at the edge of the Montlake Bridge. This also made for crossing over the Montlake Bridge on the west side and then immediately back on the east side to get to the trail, but I thought that would be exciting for the kids. I didn’t hear any complaints so I’m assuming it was a good idea.
We stopped to watch a bunch of turtles (14! Or maybe 12! I rely on kids to provide me with ride participant head counts and turtle counts and I don’t think I’ve ever received matching numbers) on a log while regrouping. Our Kidical Mass rides stay together as a rule, but sometimes we lose a couple families off the back for a few minutes of snack breaking, balance biking, or bird watching.
We ended with a picnic in the Magnuson Park Children’s Garden/velodrome ;)
Most of us migrated to the playground afterwards and while I had planned on a round-trip ride for a change, everyone was OK getting home on their own at different times so that was that.
One more thing:
Our original plan was to rush home from Kidical Mass, pack up the tandem plus trailer bike and go camping! But with all-night and all-Sunday rain in the forecast we put that idea on hold. We’re up for rainy camping once it’s warmer, but not for our first time out this season. We’re going rain or shine for family bike camping Bike Overnight June 4-5, 2016, but I hope to get out at least once before that.
30 Days of Biking stats:
April 23 miles: 11.6
April cumulative miles: 364.5
