The art of long(ish) distance cycling with kids
“It looked like 5 miles on the chart,” I said as we clocked our 10th mile towards the end of the Galloping Goose Trail. The darting eyes of my wife told me I should have measured it better. This was our virgin long distance bike ride with the kids, only about 20 miles, but that’s like 100 miles for the kids. I had picked up a bike-trailer for Oskar, our seven year old, some weeks ago and Isabella, three, was in a bike seat on her mother’s bike.
When Oskar was born we almost stopped cycling; first he was too small and then we found other excuses. After Isabella’s birth it was a similar story and many valid reasons not to cycle. When Oskar started to learn how to ride, we started to figure out ways to make cycling a bigger part of our lives. Oskar was still too small to go any distances, so we rode around town. That was fun but we wanted more. That was when I stumbled upon the bike-trailer. The bike-trailer is a bike with just a rear tire; it connects to another bicycle via the seat post and hinges on so turning is easy.
The last signpost appeared on the horizon so I pushed hard on the pedals and felt my muscles strain as I rode up the grinding trail, all uphill. Then I heard a sound “drrrdrrr” and a tune being whistled. I turned around and saw Oskar relaxing on his bike-trailer, looking around and whistling; he was happy and so was I.
