our own bike trail

I've mentioned that we've been in yard-clean-up mode for the past several weeks.  When you live in a forest of oak trees, it really is a never ending story.

And not having a leaf blower makes the story that much longer.

But it's a great excuse to get outside and exercise those raking muscles.  Joaquin, it turns out, is an amazingly quick raker.  He has his own technique that somehow involves pushing the rake on its back rather than pulling it with your arms.

So he easily put together a series of windy trails through our tree-lined front yard.  Late fall is the perfect time for this because it is cold enough that all possibility of snakes and spiders are usually gone.

The trail quickly became a practice course for mountain biking.  And trust me, it's much harder than it looks.



Check out this steep hill at the end.  It's a sure wipe-out zone for most riders.



Diego got the birds-eye view of the whole thing from the tree fort.  I call this picture "twinkle toes"...I love how the sun is shining just through the branches and lighting up his feet.



Here's an action shot of Joaquin riding one of the trails.  You can see Diego at the beginning, knee-deep in leaves.  He's a whacker...any stick, ruler, bat, flute...long shaped instrument will quickly be turned into a whacking machine.  Enjoy!