Getting Ready for the Ride

Missoula River Tour

Avi and Violet's home town of Missoula, also the home of Adventure Cycling, is a pretty good place for cycling. Drivers are very polite to cyclists, and many major roads have bike lanes. The Clark Fork river runs through town, and boasts cycle paths on both sides. These paths are not particularly long, but then again, it's a small town.

We took Avi and Violet out on the Wee Hoos, up and down the river, and up again. After just a little bit of practice, they are great at getting into their seats, helping to attach their seat belts, getting on the helmets and cycling gloves. We also find that generally they pedal well, and so help keep the train in motion.

Our ride was not much more than an hour. However, half way through (or less!) we realized that we had not brought any snacks along. The kids, who had earlier dined well on our specialty: Egg McBagels, expressed an interest in finding any restaurants. They were not kidding, really, as we could see when Violet stopped pedalling and bonked. She was then fast asleep for fifteen minutes. Next time, we'll bring those snacks. However, if we need some every fifteen minutes we will have to add a snack Bob Trailer onto the end of the train when it comes to real long distance riding!

One thing we did not hear over the course of the ride was any whining about wanting to quit or go home, although Avi did mention being "homesick" when we reached our further distance out. On the real ride, time on bike will be more like four hours, though we plan play stops. Time will tell how well the five year olds hold up to that much focussed activity.

Wee Hoo along the Clark Fork at Missoula

One of several cycle bridges at Missoula

Five Year Old Photo Bloggers

We dragged out two point and shoot cameras that we ourselves used in past blogs, and showed Avi and Violet the basics of how to work them. Because they are modern kids, they caught on to how to turn them on and off, how to trigger the shutter, how to frame shots, and how to review past shots in about 5 minutes. We did not try getting in to zooming, scene selection/exposure control, or anything like that, of course. Their main challenge seemed to be learning to hold the camera still enough while taking the shot.

Of course, we knew that they would bring a fresh perspective to photography, but even so it was a revelation to see their world and thinking, right out of the gate. Part of their "perspective" is that they often are looking up towards things, including us. It's obvious, but something you might not think about much. We have no idea what they will come up with photographically over the trip, but I bet there will be some gems in there!

Learning About Wildlife that Live Along the Route

Beaver and Moose are the most likely large residents that Avi and Violet could encounter in the Coeur d'Alenes. In Missoula, the Natural History Center has displays about these and many more of the fauna of this region. We were lucky to attend a special session on beavers. This included a complete rundown on their habitat, lifestyle, and the way their bodies are fitted for what they do.

Rather humourously, beaver equipment like sealable ears, fat bums, and orange teeth were mocked up with costume bits. Violet, though fully decked out in beaver gear did not look much like the real thing.

Avi films Violet wearing beaver "equipment" at Montana Natural History Center

Violet models beaver-like fat, fur, goggles, orange teeth, etc.

The Center also provided a map for finding the beavers' hangouts down my the Clark Fork River. We cycled there right after the session. The map, in the Ortlieb map case, thereby became the kids' first cycling map.

The kid's first cycling map. We followed this on the bikes down to the River and found the beavers' habitat.

Campfire Skills

Avi and Violet have been camping before, but in their young lives there are not many years for developing skills or remembering much about the experiences. For training, we started out with the most important thing - roasting marshmallows.

The first step was to actually find some marshmallows. It has been 30 or 40 years since the Grampies themselves did any serious marshmallow roasting. Things have changed, or rather things have grown. A seemingly standard Kraft marshmallow now outweighs a camping pillow!

In our day, if you were sloppy, or hungry, you could let your mallow catch fire and burn fairly black. Then you eat both the charcoal and the gooey white goo inside. If you were an artisan and/or not too hungry, you could hold the mallow at just the right distance from the fire, turn it often, and achieve a fairly even and attractive brown toasted effect. Then of course, you wolfed down the gooey mess just like your sloppy companions.

We found that a mature fire with lots of coals would be needed for an artisanal toasting. That was too advanced for us, so we simply lit the mallows afire and then did a lot of desperate blowing to put out the flame.

There is more than one way to toast a marshmallow

With these new jumbo mallows, the method does not work too well, because the hot but brief flame at the surface does not liquify the distant mallow heart quite as much as it should. Even so, the result seemed well accepted by the camping trainees.and hopefully on the trail both the campfire quality and the roasting skills will improve.

A rare treat. In fact, an almost new experience for these kids.

That's All for a Month or Two

Tomorrow we head back to Canada, having geared up and pumped up Avi and Violet as much as possible. We are taking one WeeHoo back, to see what gear can be strapped on to it, and to do other fine tuning. By July 1 we will be back in Montana and ready to head for Idaho. Remember to tune in and watch the story unfold.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0