Mountain Biking

During the Chinese New Years holidays we went to stay overnight at Ryan and Jill's for a visit and also Blaine wanted to try mountain biking with Ryan.  I stayed safely at home with the kids and played crash the cars with Keegan, and read books with Hunter.  One afternoon Blaine and I took Hunter to the Yogi Bear movie.  We had never been to a 3D movie so it was new for us.  The theater was fairly small with  big comfy chairs and we had fun eating caramel popcorn and watching Blaine's boyhood cartoon character!!  Hunter sat on his booster seat and didn't move through the whole thing except to munch on his popcorn!  Never seen him be so quiet or still!

They rode north of Tuen Mun up into the mountains and saw some pretty country.

Taking a breather!!  Climbing all the stairs at school paid off for him  on this trip!!!

                      

The paths are not always so smooth, but l think that's the thing they look for when  mountain biking.  It wouldn't be a challenge if it was nice and even!

This one looks easier and smoother, and at least it looks to be going down hill!  I think  trail riding is getting more popular here and there are more paths becoming available as it is no longer banned in the country parks.  To ride in the parks you must apply for a permit.

Bridge crossing over a dam. There is the odd person who rides a bike  in the traffic but mostly its suicidal to try.  The other day I was on a bus and there was an old guy trying to get across some traffic and the buses were honking and annoyed because they had to slow down and they were sitting right on his back tire.  In some places there are bike rentals and  set paths to use, but you can't just ride anywhere you want to.

Typical hillside here.  Lots of vegetation and who knows what all lives in there!  Thankfully they didn't see any snakes!

Ryan heading up the stairs.  Blaine said he learned to carry his bike as there are lots of stairs in the hills.  It takes some skill to be able to ride the stairs, as some of them do.  Ryan had a pin put  in his shoulder because of his stair riding, a couple of years ago.

At one point they heard firecrackers going off and it was incredibly loud.  A few min. later the police and ambulance came by.  I guess these people didn't get the memo about it being illegal to shoot off firecrackers in Hong Kong!!  Blaine survived his first attempt at mountain biking and was still walking the next day, so it was all good!!