The Key to the Bear Claw Poppy Trail (batteries included)

On New Year's Eve, I rode the Bear Claw Poppy trail with Jayne on a "blue moon" night ride just before midnight. It was so fun! I have been wanting to go again in daylight to better see where we went. This photo is Jayne by "Thumbnail Rock" with the beautiful "blue moon" behind her.








Yesterday, Jayne, Serena, Heidi and I rode that trail in the daylight. It was a pretty fun ride. When we were almost to "Thumbnail Rock," there is this last huge down and up. On the night ride, I went down, but then walked my bike up since Jayne kind of crashed off to the side on the way up. So yesterday, in the light, I decided I'd try to go up. Jayne hollered to "keep to the left" and so I tried just that. Unfortunately, I ended up only going up about a 1/4 of the way, and then kind of rolled off sideways and backwards at the same time since it was so steep, giggling all the way. The pictures are where we stopped by the "Thumbnail Rock." At that point, we turn around and come back, which is even more fun because you are going downhill over the hills pretty much all the way back. We finish the ride, load up our bikes and head back home as it was getting dark. Half way there, I realize my van keys are no longer in my sweatshirt pocket (I know I had something else in my pocket with my key but couldn't remember what it was right then). Okay, so I guess they jumped out of my pocket on the ride. Great.

Plan A: I figure it isn't a problem because I have the spare in my purse, and even though it is locked in my van, I have AAA and can just call for them to come unlock my car. No problem. When I call 1-800-AAA-HELP, they tell me my membership expired as of January 1st. Drat! I do recall that envelope coming in the mail, but obviously I overlooked taking care of it.

Plan B: Take a metal hanger to try to unlock the door myself. Well, that didn't work.

Plan C: Heidi's quick thinking kicked in at this point. She grabbed two of her trusty flashlights and off we headed in her car back to the trail for our new adventure/treasure hunt. We figured we had to walk it because on bikes we'd be going too fast and might miss the key. This isn't a problem, as Heidi so positively points out, because as a school, we are team members of a wellness exercise competition against other high schools in the district and this will only help us to count more minutes of exercise. Super. At this point, there isn't any moon out, quite unlike my "Blue Moon" night. We look and look, traipsing up and down the hills of the trail. Then Heidi remembers my biff on the hill and figures my key fell out of my pocket then. I did in fact roll on my left side and the key was in my left side pocket. Her theory was most likely right. Small detail: That hill was all the way up right before we turned around. No problem, remember, we are getting exercise minutes. It was hard to tell in the dark just which steep hill we were at exactly, but guess what Heidi found 60 minutes up the trail on the steep hill by the little bush where I biffed it? Yes, my van key AND my extra camera battery pack. (Oh, so that was the other thing in my pocket. Imagine that.) Success! Heidi wins the prize! In looking at my photos I took, there is one that if you were able to zoom in, you just might be able to see the key and battery because on our ride back down I took a picture looking down that steep hill with Serena riding up the opposite side of where I biffed it. So my total exercise minutes yesterday were 264, which included my earlier ride out to see Sandhollow Lake. Fun times and adventures once again!

Jayne, Heidi and Serena.



All of us standing by "Thumbnail Rock." You can kind of see part of my new fun bike off to the right. My new helmet was part of my Christmas gift from Larry.


Time to head back down the trail.
I took this picture on the way back down. It is looking down the "biff it" hill which I had tried to go up. The photo doesn't show the steepness real well. If you look close (click on the photo so it enlarges), there are a couple of little beige bushes on the right side of the trail close to the bottom. You can kind of see my black key and the battery on this side of the bushes closer to the bigger bush. My key and battery pack were sitting there when I took this picture, but I didn't know then I had lost them. So funny!