Bike crazy

For the past few months, our family has been increasingly becoming bike crazy. Maybe it started last summer when we went on our first whole-family bike ride in Vermont and did the South Hero bike ferry. Now that the kids are on "real" bikes, Nate and I are feeling a bit left out...

We bring the kids' bikes on all of our Kenya camping trips these days, usually with a pack of other biking friends.

Biking and camping and python at Lake Elementaita

 Then, I found out about the 10 to 4 mountain bike race, including kids' races. First, we thought we'd go just so the kids could participate in the 2KM and 4.5KM races that were sponsored by their school. But pretty soon, we'd been talked into joining the adults' 39KM race, too!

Time for some practice runs at Karurua Forest, where we discovered Cora really could bike 5KM in the woods, and I could too.

Karura Forest workout, 2 weeks prior to 10to4

The weekend of the mountain bike race, Ron & Kathy were in town. In fact, their presence made it possible for both me & Nate to race because Ron gave us (and our borrowed bikes) a lift up the mountain, and Kathy watched the kids.

Borrowed bikes and a new bike rack on the X-Trail

Lunch at the Trout Tree on the way to Mt Kenya

We shared our campsite with Charlotte, Leo, and Amelie Jones and Kristen, Evan, Cole, Carson & Talia Girvetz.

Race morning! 

Our 39KM racers -- Charlotte, Leo, Kristen, me & Nate

At the starting line, about when Kristen said "it's every man for himself"

 The race was one of the most exhilerating things I've ever done. We started on the slopes of Mt Kenya at 10,000 feet and ended up in the Borana Conservancy at 4,000 feet, making our way through fields and rose greenhouses and elephant-poop-filled forests and winding dirt safari roads. We bounced down dry rock riverbeds. We waved at gun-toting Kenya Wildlife Service rangers as we passed.

The view from the top - that's me waving

 And we all finished!

Leo and Charlotte finishing with Amelie and me cheering

 We were dusty and hot and tired, and Kathy handed us ice cream cones upon passing the finish line. 

Endorphins! at the finish line

 And since that day, I've been searching for my own mountain bike to start riding more regularly. Meanwhile, the kids still bike a lot at home and on the weekends at Karura and on camping trips.

Silas and his school friend, Mwangi

Our biker kid crew at Karura in March

 And I found a used Mongoose bike!

Me and Silas biking at ILRI last weekend

Nate's bike is on its way to Kenya via Karisa's VT house and Mandy/Skylar's upcoming trip to Nairobi.