Passion

If there is one thing I can relate to my son with, it is passion. Ever since I was a kid I could remember wanting something so bad and dwelling on it until I got there. This related to everything from soccer, cars, RCs, bikes, video games, girls, and the list goes on. My son is no different. I would even go as far to say that he is more passionate than I ever was. And on top of that he has someone there to fuel his flames.
This weekend started with a lonely road ride through NE Cola in an attempt to get ready for this DD challenge on Oct, 18-19. I road about 2 hours at a decent pace and got home around 6pm. Well when I got home the neighbors had started a game of yard golf and some drinking was involved. So I started the relaxing phase of the day. However, Logan had other plans in mind. He insisted that we go on a ride around the neighborhood. I explained that we would go out to Harbison tomorrow and he could wait. In true Logan fashion fueled by passion, No was not an acceptable answer. With an Old Milwaukee in hand it hit me. “Am I really arguing with my son about riding his bike?” I quickly righted my wrong and we started suiting up. The ride consists of paved trails through Lake Carolina that goes completely around the Lake. It is approximately 7 miles with maybe 500 ft of elevation change. We rode it at an average of 10mph or better. I can really tell that he has been riding a lot. He is now biking every day to school and back. And every direction is a race to him.
We even saw a guy on a Tri bike that passed us. Logan tried to run him down, pulled him back for a short time, but could not hold the pace. It was quite funny.
Then comes Saturday: Some fellas were heading to FATS, and I wish I could have made it. I have not been all year and that place is another one of those MTB fun parks. It is just wonderfully made and is super fast. I did not even try to pull this one off because I am going to Pisgah in two weeks and it will be an all weekend thing. I needed to hang around with the fam and get some good riding in with Logan. So around 11am we headed to Harbison. We took the outer loop counter clockwise, missed Crooked Pine, missed the short cut to Spidey, and went down the two longish down hills. This was his first time down these trails and he did great. The reroute out there is really nice. I really appreciate all of the hard work the forest is doing. From there we hit the hiker trail only (Shhhhhh). I do not normally poach trails, but with Logan and the difficulty of the other direction, I figured I would be forgiven. Nobody complained and we kept it slow. Then we hit the new switch backs that go by the Spider woman exit. He rode most of it, but had to walk a few areas. We went down the switchback on the other side and then the entire outer loop from there. It came out to 9.1 miles at an average of 7.2 mph. He climbed everything on the way out and enjoyed the entire ride. He even climbed the long down hill section right after Harder/Easier. I wish I could average my age during a ride through Harbison, or even on the road for that matter.
He says he wants to do Lost Creek next. I explained it was harder than what he just rode, but that is why he wants to ride it. So maybe next weekend, we will see.
Keep the fire alive!