Last summer when I was out hiking behind the hospital on the Bonneville shore-line I would watch in amazement as guys..and girls...with thighs of steel would mountain bike up steep hills in the blink of an eye, effortlessly.....only one word came to my mind....sick. Now these weren't quiet as steep of hills, and no I am sure it was not effortlessly.....but we did it, with the help of sweat and swearing all along the way.

Saturday afternoon after watching my grandpa's horse run and win the Silver Dollar Futurity race in South Jordan, Marc and I rolled down the windows to the Montero and headed south ( the A/C is broke and we're too broke ourselves to fix it...but hey, that's what windows are for, besides winter will be here before we know it). Chris and Minda just bought a house in Alpine, which if you ask me is the second most beautiful place to live next to Cache Valley, and lived right along the mountain ridge. Chris had found some pretty do-able mountain trails to go biking on and invited everyone over for a ride and BBQ. So at 3:30 in the blazing hot afternoon we headed up the trail; Marc, Me, Chris, Katie, Dan, and Brett. Luckily the trees provided a bit of shade and some thunder clouds were rolling in or we would have been dripping in sweat by the time we got back. Mountain biking is a far different challenge than road biking, it may not be as steep as some canyons, but it is full of rocks, silt, holes, and animals.

 It was a good challenge, Marc peddled up the mountain like it was nothing, Dan peddled at his normal speed ( we all joke and say that when you watch him you can almost hear the music from the wizard of Oz as the wicked witch is peddling her own bike...we love Dan), Chris and Katie followed at a steady pace knowing the hard part was just around the corner, and Brett couldn't decide to use the motor of his own legs or the motor built into his bike....cheater.

What I was more than impressed about was Katie, she trucked up that hill just like the rest of us did, and on a bike without gears! Lets just say that IF Marc starts his practice down this way....Katie and Aunt Teana will be going on quiet a few adventures together.

Once we made it to the top you could see into the back side of the Salt Lake Valley; Draper temple was close enough you could nearly touch it. We've already got our next biking trip planned out, we'll start at Chris's and then bike the entire length of the Bonneville shoreline up to our place in sugarhouse. I think I'll have to tackle emmigration canyon a few more times to get into shape for that one. But hey, Lance had to start somewhere too:)

Future Tour De France contenders