Our bike ride

This weekend Dan's parents were here and they brought their bikes along so that we could ride on the Cannon Valley Trail on Saturday. Saturday morning we got up, had bran muffins for breakfast and packed up the bikes. I packed a lunch for us all and brought that along. The trail runs from Cannon Falls to Red Wing--19.4 miles one way. We hadn't planned on biking the whole trail, but we weren't sure how far we'd go. We figured we'd just play it by ear.

The trail was beautiful as was the weather. The trail is mostly tree covered and doesn't have many hills. The sun was shining and it was cool to see the sun shining through the trees onto the trail.

We got to the trailhead a little before 11. After about 10 miles we stopped in Welch to eat the lunch that we had packed. We were all feeling quite good, especially after eating, so we decided to keep going. After another 5 miles we took a little break. The older girls were ready to head back but we told them that if we went all the way to the end we'd stop at the bakery in Red Wing for donuts. They were all for that and agreed to keep going.

We got to the bakery (which was about a mile further than the end of the trail) and sat down for some donuts. Unfortunately they were out of the custard-filled ones that we love.

On the way back I started to have some knee pain in my left knee--the same knee that has kept me from running. I knew this wasn't going to end well since we still had 20 miles to go. At about mile 30 my right knee started to hurt. And we still had 10 miles or so to go. Darin was a huge help and pedaled the whole way. And we finally made it back to the van. It took a lot longer to get back than it took to get to Red Wing. Next time I don't think we'll ride so far in one day. But I have to say that the kids did a great job. Ellie and Kara didn't complain and Darin pedaled the whole way. Natalie had it easy, of course, in the trailer.

Here are some pics that Dan's dad took: