Urban Riders Camp: Edmonds Edition

Last week, I had the chance to explore Edmonds and Lynnwood with 12 middle and high school kids by bike.

We started the week with  learning skills that would help us safely navigate through the community.  From changing gears and braking to hand signals and left turns, Lindsey and I encouraged riders to make smart choices.

The rest of the week we spent time putting what we learned into practice.

We used bike lanes to get to Lynnwood Bowl and Skate.  We rode single file and made sure to communicate about cars and gravel all the way back to the Lindsey, who was serving as sweep.

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To visit Lake Ballinger, we used the crosswalk to cross Highway 99.  We dropped down the hill and hopped right onto the Interurban Trail.  There were some important stops made to pick ripe blackberries along the way.

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We had a little bit of rain on our ride to the Edmonds Ferry Dock on Thursday, which made for some slick riding.  The kids took their time and left plenty of space between each others' wheels.  By the time we made it to the beach, the weather cleared up, and we had time to skip rocks in the water and get ourselves some Fro-Yo before heading back.

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Friday we used all our skills to ride 17 miles to Martha Lake.  We made it to Martha Lake in 55 minutes and celebrated with lunch, ice cream sandwiches and a game of ultimate frisbee.  On our way back, riders had the opportunity to take turns leading.  It was a hot day, so we drank plenty of water and took plenty of blackberry picking stops!

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HUGE thank you goes out to Verdant Health Commission for supporting such a great camp!  And congratulations to all these great riders. They put in 50 miles this past week with nothing but smiles on their faces!