What did YOU do this past weekend?

Ahhhh...the off-season! A chance to do whatever we choose. This past weekend, Chandler, Max and I went camping to Bearcreek Campground with a group of 8 families mostly from Greenville. The plan was to do part the Virginia Creeper Trail, which I have never done. Before the trip, we knew only one of the families. It was an email snowball effect invite, started by Nathan Gilreath, who, as it turns out, lives about a half of a mile from us...but we met him for the first time this weekend! Nathan and his wife, Mary Beth, have 3 small children, including a 10 week old newborn! How awesome is that to plan a trip like this when it would be seriously more easy to stay home all cozy with a brand new baby? You gotta love these people already! I could go on and on about the fabulous people we met.

We weren't really ready for the cold weather we faced, waking Saturday morning to 29°, nor did we have reservations for the shuttle bus, which runs people from Damascus to Whitetop, as it was booked up months in advance. Once in Whitetop, the Virginia Creeper trail descends gradually about 1900 feet over 17 miles into Damascus, which is what makes that section such a popular, family friendly ride. Trying to figure out logistics for our own shuttle over coffee in the 29° Saturday morning weather, we came up with a plan that Chandler and I would park our car in Damascus, and ride our bikes to Whitetop, where the other families would meet us ready to ride. When everyone got to the bottom, Chandler would shuttle all the dads back up to the top to retrieve thier cars, so they could in turn drive to the bottom to retrieve their families and bike gear. It was the perfect last minute plan, aside from the fact that Chandler and I had to ride "against traffic" uphill for 17 miles, when many of the people riding downhill had perhaps rarely ridden bikes. As you can only imagine, there were certainly some precarious moments.

All the families were at the top, getting ready to go. Our group had herds of little people on little bikes, trailers, child seats on fronts of bikes, and child seats on the backs of bikes...and toward the end, some of the trailers were carrying bikes as well as children! I think the youngest rider to make it the entire way on their own bike was a little girl, about 4 years old, once again confirming that girls do indeed rock! :) Honorable mention goes to little Christian, 3 years old, who made it about 8 miles! That is, on his own bike, no training wheels!!!! It took us 1:15 to ride up, and more than 4 hours to ride down. And the kicker is: EVERYONE had a fabulous time!

I can go on and on about how much fun we had this weekend, but I just wanted to share a little bit of it with you guys. I know that some of you rode, some of you visited friends and family, and some of you hiked many miles (how many, Weinecker and Emily?)...it would be cool to hear about some of those things. It's kinda like sharing our "layers"! :)