Biking And Bears

We arrived at the cabin on Monday evening around 8:00 and a little over an hour later this guy came nosing around the cabin. 

Not long after that bear left this big guy came through.

Earlier Dean put some ham in the tree. The bear soon found it.

Joseph was in bed asleep by the time the bears paid us a visit. I briefly contemplated waking him. I knew he would like to see the bear but his inability to trust us to keep him safe would probably leave him terrified that the bear would "get him." We chose to let him sleep and the next morning when we told him about it he was happy to see the pictures and didn't say more about it. It is hard to know when we are depriving him of an experience and when keeping him back is actually protecting him. 

Tuesday we woke the children at 6:30 and tried to get them to eat some breakfast before we hit the bike trail. We drove about half an hour from the cabin and biked just short of 23 miles. 

This picture was taken at our first bathroom stop a scant 1.5 miles into the ride. Joseph was ready to head back at this point but we convinced him to keep going. A bit later he officially declared he was finished. No talking, pleading or any other kind of urging made a bit of difference. He was done and proceeded to tell the world his opinion of biking. We packed our lunch including some snacks which I hauled in the bike cart, I dug through it our food and gave him a piece of candy to eat while he peddled. That helped his energy levels and mood for awhile.

Time for a rest and some protein

Lia rode behind Dean on the tag a long. It worked nicely because she was able to help pedal instead of simply riding along in the cart.

Early Wednesday morning Dean and Tristan biked the 23 miles back to up the trail to pick up the truck. Later in the day Tristan went for another bike ride with his uncle, he was quite proud of the 50 plus miles he rode in two days.