Photos and Notes by Bryan Sheffield
Our family had a great time a few weekends ago shredding the Perkiomen Trail in southeast Pennsylvania. We wanted to get out and enjoy the late October foliage, and the mostly gravel trail was the perfect place for an afternoon adventure. The Perkiomen Trail runs 19 miles along the Perkiomen Creek from the Valley Forge area up North to Green Lane Park. Green Lane has some cool mountain bike trails, and combined with Perkiomen, it’s an an awesome 45 mile out n’ back gravel jam! I’ve pedaled the trail a few times solo, and a couple times with friends, but this was the first time with my family. Needless to say we didn’t do the full 45 miles, maybe 6 tops…
Everyone loved it! It was our 2 year old daughter’s, Johnny, longest ride on her MyKick. She is infatuated with chasing her brother, and perpetually has a gigantic smile on her face with every kick-push. She loves showing off her riding skills to other kids and any adult that will pay her mind. Her most popular tricks include “The Helicopter” (both feet off ground kicking in the air) and “The Flamingo” (pushing with only one foot, and somehow tucking the other foot up by her bike seat(?)). She’s a champ in the making, even though she didn’t obey the course boundaries her first cross race a couple weeks ago by any means, and went under the tape to do a lap around a tree. Ha!
3 ½ year old Alden is pretty darn good on his pedal bike now. We will go out and do 7 or 8 miles and he will be asking for more. One of the only issues he has now is hills. I’ll ‘tow bar’ him up inclines by riding along side him with a hand on his back for a little assist. I’ve been working on teaching him to be comfortable taking a hand off the bars. This photo here is me trying to trick him into it with a fist bump. He doesn’t understand why he would want/need to take his hand off the bars and neither does my wife. It’s a work in progress to convince them my fatherly advice is sound in regards to one-handed-little-boy bike riding.
We were having a great time and didn’t plan well for autumns early setting sun. My daughter Johnny and I took a snack break on the trail while mom and son rode another mile or so to chase a group of deer we saw and try to find a bridge. The sun was headed down and we were about 4 miles from our car. Daughter didn’t want to stop riding her MyKick and had to be bribed with snacks to get into the D’lite trailer so we could pedal back to our car at the trailhead. Once we got back to our car she was still upset that we didn’t allow her to ride back, so we let her do some laps on the grass as I packed the car.
We had Lotsa pizza for dinner and I think I left my sunglasses on the roof of the car! Not a bad price to pay for an awesome autumn afternoon!
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