High Country Brevet and the Treasure of Captain Crank

Josh near Sunrise

 The High Country Brevet was held recently and I had intended to ride but unfortunately two of my co-workers beat me to the day off so I was stuck with running support on Saturday and no pre-ride.  Of course this offered the opportunity to bring the kids along.

Adela the Happy Stoker

 The kids and I are training for the 45 mile event at the Cochise County Cycling Classic in a few weeks and I thought we could mix things up a little and do a ride up in the pines while waiting for the brevet riders to get to the ski resort.  This plan worked really well as I learned they had recently paved the road all the way to Big Lake and though I am sad to see the area get more developed, as a road cyclist I am pumped.  We ended up riding to the Little Colorado river and back.

Josh climbing out of the Little Colorado

It was a bit chilly and we even got a few raindrops on us but was otherwise absolutely beautiful other than a few complaints from the kids (they were in desperate need of a nap).
 

Joseph crossing the prairie

All in all it was a great day and we missed the big hailstorm that hit most of the other riders.

Now, for Captain Crank!  I visited with the kids recently and the consensus was they liked doing the events but not so much the long training rides.  So,  this left me with a quandry.  How do you help the kids train for an event they want to do, but not make it feel like training?  Well,  how about a treasure hunt?  A 28 mile treasure hunt on bikes to be exact!   Every 5 or 6 miles I had a point they had to find with further instructions and candy.  It's really funny to see how a small change in an activity can make the difference.

It was warm,  it was on fairly flat in town streets, it was a boring ride but,  it was a boring ride with treasure at the end and little rewards hidden all along the way and even a playground near the turnaround (and drinking fountains fortunately enough as the ride took a lot longer than I thought it would with all the stops).  The kids are still talking about it to my wife.  This week I need to figure out how to make it work going over Usery Pass so there will be some stuff for me to look at it too.  Josh is supposed to get his team bike this week so we might be able to take advantage of some excitement there.  We shall see!