Brandon

As many of you faithful readers of this blog know, we are going on a European trip of a life time in a little more than one month. Part of that trip includes a 7 day biking excursion.

Every time I tell anyone about biking in Tuscany, they look at me and say, "Tuscany's pretty hilly." I've been doing a fair bit of biking here in Winnipeg but hills are virtually non existent in this city-although I can successfully bike up the Chief Peguis trail bridge now, without stopping.


So, knowing that we really needed some hill training, Wes and I put the bikes on the bike carrier and drove west.


Our first stop was Spruce Hills Provincial park. The map showed a biking/hiking trail which was 13 km long. It seemed like a great place to start. As we were getting ready to start, we saw a couple of young women who were just finishing up. I asked them how the trail was and they said it was pretty good, a little hilly and took them about 2 hours. I should have questioned the fact that it took 2 young, athletic looking women 2 hours to bike 13 kilometres but for some reason I didn't. That was my first mistake.


The next mistake was deciding that I could continue onto the third loop of the trail after doing the first and second. My third mistake was forgetting that I had to get back to the starting point. Getting there was tough enough. Going back was hell. I stopped counting my mistakes after the third one.


It was hot. It was bumpy. My butt started hurting. I ran out of water. We went up hill more than we went down hill. There was one spot where there was a sign stating that you had to walk your bike down into the gully. It was as steep as a flight of stairs only it was sandy. It took all of my might to keep from sliding all the way down on my already painful petunia. As I was slipping and sliding down, I tried to keep thoughts of the fact that somehow, I had to get back up, out of my head.


If I had been in a better frame of mind (or perhaps in better shape, like a 20 year old), I might have enjoyed the wild flowers, the babbling brook and the lovely prairie landscape. However, I was not in a good frame of mind and swore to myself that I would never, ever do such a crazy thing again. My legs were killing me, my heart was pounding out of my chest and I was thirsty. Wes, who was usually ahead of me could hear my grunting, groaning and cursing

But, finish it I did. Good thing I took these pictures because I was in no mood to appreciate the beauty of anything that day. It does look like a lovely trail, doesn't it?