Day 24: Learning to Climb

Great ride on the morning of the 4th. Thanks to MK for suggesting King's Mountain. We did about 50 miles, and got in some really good climbing. Check it out! The Strava elevation graph is impressive.

My first bike was red and white with an awesome banana seat -  a hand-me-down from my older sister. When I was ten or twelve years old, I wanted a real, more grown up bike, so my parents bought me a rockin' pink ten-speed. We lived in Illinois and I could ride that thing around town for hours. One big difference to my rides these days - no hills. I remember wondering what the gears were for since I never really changed them.

True story, when I was a kid I thought mountains went straight up and straight back down - or how they look in a child's drawing. When I read about people who live in the mountains, I thought their house just sat on the side of the mountain on an angle. Always sounded pretty dangerous to me. "How do they play? Do they just roll down the hill? How do they get home for dinner?"


Bill and his family live in the mountains.

Likewise, when I heard that people drive or bike up mountains, I thought it looked a lot like this:

Is this en route in the Tour de France?


Let's just say that my first trip to Colorado as a teenager was an eye-opening experience. When riding up an elevation on my bike now I think, "Man, I'm glad it's not what I thought when I was a kid."