Camping and Mountain Biking!

Last week, I spent 3 days with my sister's family at Cuyuna State Recreation Area up by Crosby, MN. We camped and biked on the amazing trails around the former mines. My sister and niece don't really mountain bike (my nephew bikes for a high school team), but we got all 6 of us out for some easier rides on the first day:

Home for 2 nights!


One of the many former-mine-turned-lake in the area. (On a morning walk.)


Taking the boys out for a longer ride (on MTB trails... this is just paved trail getting there).

We didn't go as far as we wanted to because Charlie had his first concussion! I was bringing up the rear, and Charlie was in front of me. I found him laying just off the trail, and thought he had taken a small tumble and was sort of joking around. But he didn't respond to his name. I hopped off my bike, and his arm was limp. (I STILL kind of thought he was joking.) I used all of my TV/movie knowledge and started slapping his face, and he didn't respond. HE WAS OUT. After maybe 10 more seconds, he woke up and was very scared right away - he was maybe out for 30 seconds total. I took off his helmet and "poked" around his head and neck, but he had no tender spots. I looked under his jersey, and we found no scrapes or issues. He doesn't remember, but he must of just taking a really hard fall. He was FINE immediately. We turned around and headed back to our campsite (still maybe 3 miles away), and he was just sort of scared the rest of the way. But then he was completely fine the rest of the day. Now he tells everyone the story.

So to "use" the time we were going to take biking around, we instead grabbed my sister and niece and biked on the paved trails into town for ice cream and some shopping:

(I found and reviewed an expensive Italian cola on my "root beer" blog.)


At the park in Crosby.


Back out at the mines. This narrow (but 2 mile long) lake is 258 feet deep!


Swimming with the fellas!


Pizza back in town that night!!


Getting these 2 to bike!


Charlie covered in "Cuyuna red."


Cousins.


Charlie chased a snake out of the water!




Hitting a different pump track on the way home.

I didn't bike much the final day there as I took down the tent as the kids hit the trails one last time, but I got in almost 30 miles of mountain biking between Monday and Wednesday. (And then I biked to the State Fair on Thurs and Friday, and then went on a long ride on Saturday, so I had 6 days straight of biking last week.)