We’re staying at what essentially a ski resort, but of course there isn’t any snow in the summer. So they’ve done a clever thing and rent mountian bikes and haul you to the top using the ski lift. So we decided to give it a go.

The trails

The choices

The weapon

We had tried to rent bikes on Monday around 1:00, but everything was already gone. The guy recommended showing up as soon as the shop opened. So today we were in line at 9:15 with a dozen other people. At 9:30 we all nicely filled inside to the rental counters. We were second in line and feeling a little smug. The couple in front of us didn’t rent anything which seemed strange until the clerk explained that she only sold lift tickets. We got in the wrong line. Feeling less smug we got in the right line. 90 minutes later we had our bikes, lift tickets and full face helmets.

We spent a few minutes getting used to the bikes and headed over to the lift. They were using a 8 person lift with some extra bits to load the bikes on.

Michael enjoying the ride up

Maggie and I switched bikes because her seat wouldn’t go down and when we got to the top all of a sudden she couldn’t peddle. The chain had gotten jammed at the front sprocket somehow. There were some basic tools cabled to a post which I was attempting to use when a couple of guys who knew more about bikes than me helped us out. 2 hours after we walked into the bike shop we were finally ready to ride down the hill.

On the way up we noticed a crazy twisty path through the trees and decided it must be the black diamond most difficult trail.

Crazy trail

So we start down the easy blue trail and guess which one it was. The crazy one we saw on the way up!

Michael took off like he’d been doing this his entire life while Maggie and I kept a more sedate pace. It was definitely challenging, but fun.

View from ground level

We did 2 trips down before our legs started burning (and lunch was calling). So we rode back to the apartment to eat and report on our day so far.

After a nice break the kids decided they were done, but Maggie and Michelle went back to the lift with me and rode to the top to walk around and enjoy the view and have a little refreshment at the cafe on top.

The girls

I did another 8 trips down the mountian and quite enjoyed myself. Although I was in desperate need of some Advil at the end!

Good times