Mountain Biking Course

 I saw that Columbia has a mountain bike skills course on the parks and rec website so we added it to the list of things to do this summer. We went out (on a weekend, so Sam could come, too) and took all three kids' bikes but Amelie was the only one who wanted to ride - the other two just played in the playground area and then Leah watched some biking from the fence. I didn't actually take pictures of that outing, but there's another bike obstacle course up at Finger Lakes, too, which we did a few days later, and I took a bunch of pictures then. 

The one in Columbia says "beginner to intermediate" but it's definitely not beginner - I was really proud of the way Amelie kept at it even after falling off. She scraped her forehead and elbow pretty good. The one at Finger Lakes is probably also intermediate but the outside loop seemed a little bit easier. I just packed up Amelie's bike since we went to all that trouble cramming the other two in the back of the van last time & only she rode & they claimed that they weren't interested. 

Working up some courage: 

There was an inner all-concrete loop, too, which James and Leah spent a fair amount of time just running around on foot. We were the only people there. 

James was not very patient waiting for his turn with the bike: 

James tried the outer wooden loop and the inner concrete loop on the bike - he only fell off once - and then he rode around in the empty parking lot some.