Best ride ever!

I had the opportunity to ride with one of my very favorite people, my Dad.  He was an avid runner until he injured his ankle pretty badly in a race when he hit a pot hole with his foot.  He gave up running after that and bought a bike, and hasn't looked back.  He loves it and is dang good!  He was visiting from Denver for my cousin's wedding and since I now I have a bike, he figured he could bring his over with him and we would go on a ride.  We selected to do the 50 mile route for the Wildflower Pedalfest that I am signed up for in August.  I was initially nervous about this since I thought it was going to be way too hard for me and I thought that I would have all summer to train.  Well, he said that he would get me through it.  I took the day off from work, and it turned out to be a GORGEOUS day.  Below is the view from the start, where we parked our car and started our ride.

Here are our sweet rides.  His is the red one. I have read that you need to be scared of the guys with red bikes.  They were right, my Dad is a beast on that thing!

 We rode from Mountain Green up Morgan Canyon to the top of East Canyon Reservoir.  It was a awesome ride, with the steepest climbs that I have done so far.   My Dad was great though, he taught me a lot about my bike that day, and shared some tricks with me.  And I must admit, though climbs are tough, I have started to enjoy the challenge, and the downhill is a very sweet trade off!  Here we are at the top before we headed back down.  This is my Pa, he will be 60 this year, and he is awesome!  I know that he held back for my sake on this ride, and I appreciated that.  It was so nice to have the time with him.

The total ride was just under 50 miles.  We didn't go quite as far around the reservoir as the route for the organized ride calls for, and we had to get back for family stuff that night.  I can't express how fun it was to spend the time with my Dad, I am a self proclaimed Daddy's Girl, and this one on one time with him is rare.  I learned a lot from him, and it was a great day.  I handled the ride and the climbs better than I thought I would, so much so that I changed my registration to the 75 miler for the same ride that will continue past the reservoir and go to the top of Big Mountain. 

Happy Training!