Potter Family Bike Trip 2015!!

A couple of years ago the Cherrys and the Pulsiphers went on a bike/camp adventure around Lake Michigan. I had just started my job at GW, so I couldn't go. I was very sad to miss out. Luckily it sounds like Pulsipher bike trips are going to be a reoccurring event and my awesome brother-in-law David planned another trip for this summer just before the 4th of July and better yet, in the DC area! David took care of all the planning and did a great job! 

So here is my photo heavy post on our bike trip! 

Here we are loading up the vans at the Cherry's house before we head up to Hagerstown MD. 

Ed, Henry and Ed's raccoon named Night Kill running to our stop at Cafe Rio :)
Ed was devastated when Night Kill got lost on the trail. 

DAY ONE: June 29th

We stayed at a motel up in Hagerstown and spent the morning assembling our bikes and getting ready.  All told there were 5 adults and 6 children. Only one of the kiddos was able to ride her own bike. So the rest of the kids were in trailers, baby bike seats or on tagalong bike attachments. 

Lane and Jim - the oldest and the youngest of the children on the trip. It was so great to spend time with both of them!

Lane and I were the only big kid bikes that didn't have children attached. Here
was my set up with a trailer and tent that David let me borrow. 

Our trail was down the old C&O Canal. It was really cool to not only ride down some
 gorgeously green trails, but to also go through some of the old ruins of the canal. It was really interesting!
This is Serena stopping along the first bridge we came across.  

Here are Serena and I with all of our gear! We had great weather and the majority
of the trail was covered with trees so we didn't get very sunburned! 

The Pulsipher family on the bridge 

In a tragic twist of events - our dear Lane's kneecap was dislocated. Luckily we weren't too far from our motel where our cars were parked. Serena took my bike, and got the van and Chris, David and Ashley carried poor Lane a mile back on the trail where there was a connecting path with the highway so that Serena could pick her up. Serena and Lane had to leave our group :(. We were so sad for Lane! While all of this happened, I stayed with all of our bike gear and watched over these three and Henry .... they got up to all sorts of shenannigans. We had a odd incident where another biker came through and literally ran over ME! He didn't even stop to see if I was ok! Luckily no damage was done and I was ok - but it was super weird.  

As Serena took my bike and Henry needed to be on a tagalong, I took over Serena's bike. Tagalongs are the BEST! The kids can still peddle - which is awesome when you are going up a hill or through the mud!
Here is Ashley and Ed and me with Henry. It was a lot of fun!  

On the trail 

Ashley, Jim and I taking a break to look at a dam. This has been a really wet spring and the river  was really high. 

Love those Pulsiphers!

DAY 2: JUNE 30th

Here we are day two at camp - George was SO happy to find a frog - all told they found at least four frogs and a turtle. The kids were in heaven! Its so nice to take these kids out to play in nature! 

Part of the trail was flooded out and we needed to take a detour. Once you leave the bike path along the banks of the river, the country roads are full of extreme UPs and DOWNs. I was not as hydrated as I thought and I started get nauseous , dizzy and got a pounding headache. We took a quick break and my bike buddy for the morning - Ed, took care of me. Sweetie. Here he is spraying and fanning me. 

DAY THREE: July1st!

Ashley with cute little Ed. I was so impressed with him! He is only three years old and he held on tight to that tandem bike  all day for three days! My nephews are so cool!!

We decided to stay in a hotel the night of the 30th and we are pretty lucky we did.
There was a SEVERE thunderstorm that night that we hadn't seen in the forecast.
We were able to sleep in beds and take showers. It was great. Henry was
my bike buddy for most of the way. It was a blast and he has some pretty powerful
legs to that would give me the "turbo boost" I'd need every once and a while.

We found roadside wild raspberries. They were SO SO SO GOOOD! 

My dear little Charlotte was such a trooper on this trip. She was on my bike tag along when we got
caught in a huge rainstorm. We both got DRENCHED. She was our positive cheerleader!

Its a lot of gear - I love that bikes are capable of carrying it all.

Nature = Heaven

Henry's turbo boost got us a bit to far ahead from the rest of the group.
So we took a break. It felt so good to be surrounded by nothing but green. 

The nice thing about the C&O Trail is that you go through several small towns.
Ashley saved the day and took a pizza detour while we went ahead and set up camp.
The kids loved it. This was my attempt at getting a non-goofy picture of them.

Here is the star of the show! Jim is 10 months old and was such a joy to have on the trip!
He wasn't fussy at all and loved to be in his bike chair. Jim wins the MVP of the trip!

Our campsite was right on the banks of the river. It was gorgeous. Ashley and I took a dip and it felt AMAZING!

I finally got all of the kids smiling and in one selfie! Too bad I didn't worry about my facial expression! (wamp wamp)

Sunset at camp - through the trees and over the river. It was a gorgeous evening. 

We worked to keep the fire going - luckily there was a fallen tree not too far away. 

I bought sparklers for the kids. 

We loved it :)

DAY 4: JULY 2nd 

We woke up on day four to a rain storm. We tried to wait it out in our tents, but alas it did not let up and our tents got wet. We had to pack out while everything was all wet. Not the most fun. We also decided to get on the side roads again as the trail had a lot of mud on that stretch and it was really hard to ride through. We got back onto the country roads and rode up and down for an hour or two before we decided to call it. Serena was on her way to rescue us. We had several set backs and were not as far in terms of  milage as we had originally planned. In the end, I was totally ok with that. 

It really was such a great trip! David did such a great job planning it. I was definitely pushed to some physical limits that I was not expecting, but I was glad for it. As cheesy as it sounds, a trip like this that has its highs and lows and is dependent on the group working together to meet a goal is great for a whole other level of family bonding. I had one on one time for hours with each of my nephews and niece. It helped me build relationships with them in ways that I don't think I would have gotten at your run-of-the-mill family reunion. I would totally do it again and I think it was a total SUCCESS!