Last weekend we escaped to Coeur D'alene. I say 'escaped' because life can get so busy in Seattle .... so sometimes (about once per month) you just need to head out of town and clear your head :)
Last weekend was such a weekend. It was amazing! We went to tride the "Coeur D'alenes Trail"; a 72 mile long paved bike path that runs from east of Coeur D'alene to the edge of the Idaho/Montana border. This bike path is in immaculate shape and has very little traffice. Perfect training!
The plan was to do a quick ride on Friday (get the cobwebs out of the legs after a long car ride), a long ride on Saturday, and to see what we felt like on Sunday. It worked well! Here are the details, by the numbers:
Miles ridden: 125
Moose spotted: 2
Dear spotted: 2
Chipmunks spotted: too many to count
Ducks/Geese spotted: too many to count
Hours of riding: 7
Of course the numbers don't tell you everything :) For instance, they do not tell you how we started at 7am when the fog was burning off and it was just above freezing. How the cold air really 'woke us up' and how our hands froze for the first 2 hours and we laughed it off, happy to be alive and enjoying nature. How we scared a baby moose out of the bush and frantically looked around for the mother ... finally found her (seperated by barbed wire fence, phew!) and then had to hang out so that the baby would pass us on the trail as there was no where else to go (swamp and lakes!). How the miles flew by as the sun peeked thru the clouds. How good zuchini bread, brownies, and pb&j tasted at mile 55, and how great the sun felt even though it didn't really warm up. How I finally warmed up after 5 hours of riding and got in trouble for riding too fast :) How much we appreaciated the bathroom stops on the trail and how beautiful the sceanery was! And of course, how tired we were at the end, and how great the hottub felt that night!!!
Amazing! All in all a great weekend, and a fantastic training day!
