So our second day, all the kids voted to get e bikes... So, we found a place just outside the park and got five bikes. Jer took Seth and everyone else had their own bike. Evelyn was scared of how fast the bikes could go and my bike stopped working with the assist. I was okay for a while, but Ada and Sam both insisted on taking turns with my bike instead. My sweet family. Total we only rode about 11 miles, but they were spectacular miles! We only got honked at once by someone who had no patience whatsoever. We were trying to enter the park but didn't see the bike entrance. We were off to the side in the employee entrance while we tried to spot the right one for bikes. A guy came up and just laid on his horn, honking over and over while we tried to get out of the way. One honk, okay yeah.... we were in the wrong spot. But why keep honking when you see people actively trying to fix the situation? After the 5th or 6th honk, I lost it and started yelling at him. I don't usually yell at strangers, but I did this day. I yelled at him that we were moving and why was he honking at kids instead of waiting for them to follow me out of the way. If he really was an employee and needed that entrance, he's not the kind of employee that should be working where there are hundreds of visitors daily. We finally found the right path and got going. Everything was fine until Sam managed to clip a man's arm with the handle of his bike. Sam felt awful, and we had a talk about giving people and cars a wide berth. I asked if he needed any band aids, but he already had some. What do you do in that kind of situation? He was bleeding, but we couldn't fix it more than saying sorry. We were only going about 10 miles/hour at the time because of how many people were on the path. I'm just glad that he clipped the big strong dad instead of one of the little kids walking with the dad. I think that would have been worse.
Going over these bridges sounded like a giant earthquake. Seth was tucked in the seat with three hiking bags. I asked if he was comfy and he said that he was warmer.
We got to the base of Angel's landing without any more incidents and no shuttles passing us by. We locked up the bikes and Jer took Ada up Angel's Landing and I took the other three to the Emerald pools at the same trail head. I wasn't a bad hike. I few more stairs than I like, but we made good time and even with me being slow on the stairs and taking extra stops because Seth said he was too hot.... we still finished in about 2 1/2 hours. We were anticipating having to wait for the other two at least an hour, but their hike was 4.5 miles to our 2.4... and they have the two faster hikers... but theirs was much steeper and they had to be careful on the chains. We ended up waited for them at the bottom for about 3 hours. If I had known it was that much, we would have gone to another trailhead... but I just had no way of letting him know if we were going to do that. So we waited. We saw turkeys, ate all the snacks in our bags for lunch, played lots and lots of games.... and made our own shadow puppet movie. Sam and Evelyn unlocked their bikes and biked in a couple circles around the parking lot. They got bored, locked them both back up and came to take a nap on the benches.
I almost slipped down these stairs. I ended up borrowing the kids walking sticks and going down more carefully. I just didn't want to make the kids be responsible for me if I sprained something an hour away from anywhere.
The middle Emerald pool was completely covered in leaves from the trees. Not at all like the pictures, but we met a fun family from Iowa and enjoyed talking about eco systems.
Shadow puppet movie.
We were going to stay and go up Weeping Rock. We had the bikes so it didn't matter if we missed the shuttle... but I was nervous about anyone getting hit on their bikes in the dark. So we decided to see the "sad rock" as Evelyn called it another day.
We got Ada back to the car and she was mortified. She'd ripped a hole in her pants on their hike and Dad hadn't noticed.... so she quickly found some shorts to wear instead.
These two did an amazing job. I just remember the switchbacks being hard when I did Angels Landing back in the day. But apparently it was harder than I remembered. They both powered through it and should be very proud of themselves.
This was her "chair" rock. It was perfect for laying down she said.
I'm glad that they love each other and their company.
This is what I remember from that hike. A chain that you hold on, but you don't need to pull yourself up on like half dome.
Views from the top
I don't blame them for being nervous on the top. I would be too.
Ada found a tree that when she sat down, the roots were perfectly hugging around her body. She said that it was her "hugging tree" right at the top of the summit.
I do remember this too... I thought it was neat then.... Jer loved it now. the way that the chain had rubbed grooves into the rock.
I loved all the yellow flowers on the biking trail.
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