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Go girl go!
The extra traction ruled the day. Surprisingly, my hammering led to zero complaints! Obviously, I had underestimated my sister, Jenn. She was just like a little tractor, grinding away. Jenn is in terrific shape, cardio wise. And that's what's important. I would strongly urge more women to get into the sport. So does Jennifer. It's really too bad we don't see more women on the trails in Canada. But then it took me years to convince Jenn to just try it. She finally did last summer and came home with this huge smile on her face! She'll never look back. She wants to go for something more technical and challenging next summer now. Right on.

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Crazy pace
After another hour's worth of riding, well the inevitable happened. We started getting cold. We all decided to take the roundabout route towards home. Sean took the lead this time and set an insane pace on the way to the access road along the Richard Saunders Dam. I was amazed he didn't wipe out, considering the icy conditions on this part of the trail. Sean is just like that. He can take off at a moment's notice when you least expect him to. I don't know where he finds the energy. He's extremely skinny. Looking at him, you might get the impression that there's nothing there to hold him up. You would be dead wrong. Sean is a man of great spirit. That's where his energy comes from. His intellect, his compassion and most of all his sanity is what is so beautiful about him. If you listen to him speak, at times you'll get the feeling that you are in the presence of a kind of quiet grace. But there's a fire inside him that you never see unless he's on a mountain bike. That's when he can overstretch things a bit.

Hot soup, cold beer
Which brings us to the last stretch of our Boxing Day ride. We finally made it to the gravel road along the base of the dam towards home. I tried to warn Sean to take it easy, that this stretch had some icy spots. What's worse is that you can't see the ice underneath the previous night's snowfall. Well, Sean took a nasty spill on a stretch of hidden ice . He was upset, though unhurt. I jumped off my bike and offered him my hand but thing is, he doesn't like to be helped up. He just wants to struggle to his feet and stand on his own. How totally Canadian. He moved around a little bit and then mounted the GT and we continued on down the access road until we came to the end of the ride.
We all sprinted on the street to the short stretch towards home. When I skidded up into the driveway my Dad appeared from under the carport. With a grin, all I could think of to say was, "how's it going, eh?". That was when my Dad just laughed and I laughed too. Jenn and Sean and I all swept off the snow from our bikes and put them into the basement to dry out. We all had a huge lunch with hot soup and cold beer, with our noses running and our cheeks still stinging from the cold. That was great.

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