Bike camp

[Bike camp was in mid-July; I'm catching up.]

The kids loved bike camp last year and were eager to return for a second time. This camp is run by Cascade, and it’s all about enabling kids to be city bikers. They do skill-building exercises about signaling, biking near pedestrians, rules of the road, etc. This is great stuff and they really learn it: I’ve biked with our kids, and their road awareness and manners are really excellent. They also teach the kids how to read a bike map. 

The big event of every day is that they ask the kids where they want to go - and then they go there! Aaron’s group rode from Magnuson to Log Boom Park, then another day to Gas Works, then another day to Green Lake. It’s awesome. Jordan’s group (with their bigger bikes and longer legs) rode to Discovery Park, which is literally the other side of town, and then another day to Volunteer Park, which is at the top of a heck of a big hill. The whole thing is incredibly empowering. Jordan in particular feels like he can bike anywhere he wants to, in all of Seattle, and I’m sure he’s right. (My testimonial to this effect made it to their website!)



Aaron was amazed to learn that if you are able to bike up a big hill without getting exhausted, that tells you about the strength of your heart, at least as much as your legs. I know this is true, but my explanation of why felt pretty thin. Something about delivering more oxygen to the muscles so they can do their thing better?