Banks-Vernonia Trail

Today was Attempt Number Two at the Banks-Vernonia Trail.  The first was a complete waste of time as we had a flat tire and never got to leave the parking lot.  This time everything worked out.  We parked at the Buxton Trailhead and biked up-valley for a few miles and then rode back down.

It was a gorgeous trail, but I don't think we'll be back to that segment.  There were an unfortunate mix of trail users that really shouldn't mix.  Put it this way: there were folks riding horses and folks riding bikes like they were Lance Armstrong and toddlers riding scooter bikes.  And that's all fine and dandy, but you really shouldn't be interacting on the same narrow trail.  Really, I only had a problem with the bikers flying down the hill at 30mph; it was just irresponsible considering the level of use.

Anyway, the trail is much longer than what we rode being that it was once an old railroad.  The kids did a fair bit of whining on the up-valley push since even though the rail road grade was super gentle, it was still "uphill."  On the way back, the kids had much more fun; too much fun.  Zoë almost wrecked when a garter snake darted across the trail in front of her.  And Zephyr did wreck; all day long I'd been telling him to stop zig-zagging back and forth.  Well, he zig-zagged too hard and wrecked himself.  The rest of the day was pretty much ruined for him.  But a great lesson for wearing helmets!

Here's a quick video of Zephyr (pre-accident) on a small bit of single-track that branched off the main paved trail.

And here's a video on the return trip as we just cruised through the forest.  Really a beautiful trail!