Colorado Mountains, Skiing, Ghost Towns, 4×4, and Vacations

Growing up in a family that spends a lot of time outdoors has provided me with a vast amount of funny memories. My entire family can ride motorcycles, camp, fish, hike, and do quite a few other outdoor sports. People always look at me funny when I tell them both my mom and sister are outdoors women.

Whenever I have idle time, I’m always thinking about things I want to do, or things I’ve already done. As I sit here I’m reminded of a motorcycle trail ride that my father, mother and myself did just outside Breckenridge, Colorado a few summers back.

Now, to understand the humor, you have to know my moms current riding ability. She can ride, but not all that well. She hadn’t been on a bike on her own in a few years. So just to be safe, my dad and I built her an old 175 Yamaha that really didn’t go all that fast.

Whenever the three of us go out for a ride, my father always stays with my mother and rides her pace, while I haul ass ahead and see what the terrain looks like. After scouting a decent distance, I return and ride at their slower pace.

On this particular ride, we were probably a good mile or so up the trail, and I took off to check out the upcoming obstacles. After realizing that the approaching rocky incline was considerably more than my mothers riding ability, I headed back to let them know we would either have to go back down the mountain or at the least back to a spur and find a different way over.

When my parents saw me coming, they stopped, still facing up the trail, and I was aimed down. I explained the challenges that lie ahead. For reasons that are still beyond me even today, I looked at my mom and realized she was slowly sliding back off the seat of her bike.

She must have realized it herself about the same time, and promptly opened both of her hands. In doing this she released the front brake and twisted the throttle wide open. As I watched in disbelief, she popped the clutch and the bike proceeded to wheelie up the trail, dragging her along as it went.

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. My dad, obviously stunned, watched as my mom and the bike make it probably 10 feet or so, before the bike hit a tree with the front wheel, and dumped my mom off the back.

As my dad rushed to my mom to make sure she was ok, he looked back at me. I was worried about my mom of course, but I was laughing so hard I had dropped my motorcycle, and was doubled over next to it. My mom then turned and screamed at me ever so loudly, “It’s not funny! That tree jumped right out and hit me!”

I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard. I didn’t feel near as bad when my mom started laughing too.

Looking back, I realize that it was small things like that which could only happen in the great outdoors. Even though it scared all of us, we still look back and laugh about it.