Mike's Bike Blog

Growing up on the Eastern side of Washington State in rural Chattaroy, outside of Spokane, we had many hills to ride bikes on growing up. The rural area we lived in provided a vast playground of roads that my friends and myself would ride on for hours on end. I recently mapped a few of my known routes that we rode to see how far we rode in any particular day and the average was about 6-8 miles with some 15-20 mile adventures thrown in as I got older. When I was 10 - 12 years old these all day rides seemed long and epic, it gave me a little chuckle to see how low the mileage actually was.

There was one hill in particular that us neighborhood kids would test ourselves on. It was sort of a right of passage to try and get up the hill without having to stop or walk up. I'm not sure what the grade of the hill on Buck Brush was, in the winter after a snow it was typically undrivable and would be closed for sledding. We also called it the Water Tower Hill, you can probably image why. Looking back I have several fond memories of riding up that hill. It was the quickest route to Owens Pond where I'd frequently go to fish. Imagine riding up this hill with my fishing pole. A lot of my friends would go around the hill to avoid it and meet me at the top. One other memory is when my Uncle Kenny came to visit and I talked him into going to Owens Museum with me one evening. I rode my bike while he walked. From then on he always talked about how he almost died walking up the Water Tower hill and how far this little jaunt was (actually only 2 miles).

Last night Jack and me went over to the Twin Creeks circuit and did 1 lap to warm up and then we went down the Twin Creeks hill. His eyes were wide as we descended the hill. At the bottom we discussed his strategy of getting back up, he was worried about getting to the top. I let him know that it was ok to stop and catch his breath. I've seen a lot of adults need to stop on the hill and I've seen grown adults walk their bikes up it as well so if he had to stop there was no shame in it. Off he went. After his first stop I told him to pick out a marker up the hill and ride to that spot. It took him 4 rest stops to get to the top and I might be a proud father but I must say his form looked a lot better than a lot of people I see on it. A lot of people are weasing and out of breath as they fight their way to the top. He on the other hand paced himself and didn't seem to burn any matches.

He was quite proud of himself to get to the top and he set a goal to ride to the top without stopping by the end of the summer. I'm pretty sure the Twin Creeks hill is steeper than my Water Tower hill and it is a bit longer .5 compared to .22 miles. Be on the look out for updates on his progress!