Summer Mountain Biking

by Nick Coons
Aug 6, 2003

My dad invited me for a day of mountain biking and hiking up at Chevelon Creek a week or so ago, and I was up for it. It's been awhile since I had even been on a bike for any length of time, so I figured it might take a little getting used to.

Whoever came up with the saying "it's like riding a bike" has never gone any period of time without riding a bike, because there was nothing easy about the first two minutes. It came back to me after that, so I suppose the thought isn't completely unjustified.

A little while later, we found a "parking spot" along the trail and hiked down to the creek. I decided to bust out with my camcorder to pickup some footage and noticed that my tripod was missing a few pieces. Obviously it didn't care for the harsh trail terrain and couldn't take the bumps. All of the footage I could gather from there was handheld.

Sitting on a large rock in the middle of the stream I could see a variety of birds fluttering about. I sat there quietly and almost motionless as to not scare away any of the wildlife. Slowly breaking out my camera I captured some video of the various birds flying through the trees and hopping from twig to twig. A blue jay entered the scene but quickly left before I had a chance to zoom in.

Our salami sandwich lunches consisted of bread and salami that we brought from home, mustard from packets thanks to the local gas station in Payson, and potato chips to give it that extra crunch, a sort of simulated lettuce.

On our way out, we kept our eyes peeled on the trail looking for the missing components of my tripod, and found both of them. We made our way to Woods Canyon Lake where my dad worked on bringing in the fish and I had fun videotaping the chipmunks eating random fruit scraps that they found lying on the ground.

Sun burnt as I normally am after a day such as this, we were on our way home. I was told I would be sore the next day from all of the biking. I countered that by saying that I was already sore.