Henry's S24O

After Sam's solo backpacking trip, Henry lobbied hard for a camping trip of his own. I was sick last weekend, so we had to delay until it was now the last weekend of summer. After raining hard Friday, Saturday was clear and perfect, and we loaded up and hit the road.

Unlike most previous S24Os, Henry was riding his own bike and even carrying most of his own gear. Progress! We took some well earned breaks along the way to camp:

Backpacking with Sam

Sam's middle name is "Walker," and true to his name, he's far and away the best walker of our three kids. I tested him after the Fourth of July parade, when we walked home from our old neighborhood. About four miles. He did fine, so I started scheming for something bigger. Last weekend, we did it.

Sunday after lunch, we pointed the car towards Dayton. Our destination was the Twin Valley trail, a backpacking route that connects two metro parks in the Dayton area. We started on the north end, in Germantown Metro Park:

Our route had us walking about five miles on Sunday, camping at Cedar Ridge, and six miles back to the car on Monday. The first bit was through an open field:

Off to the Races

Last weekend was the Indy 200 at Mid Ohio, so three generations made the drive up US42 on Saturday to check out the races. Our first stop was the Honda hospitality tent to mooch some free water and pretzels, then we stopped to check out the display cars:

Alas, neither the Civic Type R nor the NSX is available at my pay grade, so we wandered around until we ran into a Wookie:

Car Camping S24O at John Bryan

Is it still an S24O if you drive?

Over break, the kids and I loaded up the Civic and headed to John Bryan SP for an overnighter. My idea was to take the twins on an introductory mountain bike trip to the very easy trails at JB, and to enjoy camping.

Only one of those ideas mostly worked out.

Turns out it was easier to load four bikes and four people into my Civic, rather than our much larger Pilot:

Mountain Bike Thief Alert! and Kids and Bikes

Henry has developed a sudden interest in all things bicycle this summer. Not sure where that came from. Anyway, earlier this week, we headed to the beginner loop at Alum. He knocked off two easy laps there (4 miles), so we continued on to the main trail and rode parts of that, maybe 7 miles all in. He did great! He even rode a small ramp, which had me a bit nervous as I trailed behind him. He's really building his confidence, and was able to laugh off a brief off trail excursion. Go Henry!

Last Ride of the Halfwheeler

I bought this Giant Halfwheeler trail-a-bike 5 or 6 years ago for $75 off Craigslist. I had been thinking the kids have just about outgrown it. To give it one last hurrah, I hooked it up a few weekends back when Henry wanted to go riding with me on an early morning library run.

Turns out, a seat post mounted trail-a-bike, a lightish 'cross frame, and a burly 10 year old isn't the best combination in the world:

New Bike: Raleigh Pardner

While I was visiting China a few weeks back, I made a somewhat impulsive online purchase of a Raleigh Pardner fatbike, using their corporate discount code (in a bit of odd coincidence, the Raleigh is presumably made in China, where I was, but shipped from a Central Ohio warehouse, where I live). I had a hankering to try a steel fatbike, got tired of waiting for a used Pugsley to show up, and so decided to order the Pardner before Raleigh's rumored departure from mountain bikes.

A big, heavy box was waiting for me when I got home Saturday morning:

It went together pretty quickly, although I haven't bothered adjusting the hubs yet, if they need it. Raleigh thoughtfully included a few bags of reflectors and dork discs that will never get installed:

There's a lot of open space in my neighborhood, but not many trails. One of my ideas is I can use this bike for local bushwhacking: