What a great day!

Ryan and I drive over to my parents’ new place in Mountain View, AR on Wednesday. Since a lot of my family was staying in the cabin, we checked in to a little cabin on Sylamore Creek just down the road from their place.

This morning, we slept in until almost 7:00, then had some breakfast and headed out for our first ride on the Syllamo MTB Trails. Other than being slightly chilly, it was a perfect day- we climbed up Green Mountain Road to the Bad Branch Trailhead. This loop is the “easy” one (as well as the best maintained) out of the 50+ miles of trails in the system, so we figured that it’d be a good for the first time out. It was a gorgeous ride, and we made it back in time to get the car packed and head up the hill to my parents’ place for the tail end of Thanksgiving lunch. After laying around for a while, we helped my dad move a rock.

Yes. A rock. It was his favorite rock on the property because it is “shaped like a bench.”

It was an exercise in simple machines. Between the use of an antiquated pulley (I think my dad bought the pulley then started looking for something to do with it), a lever, and a tractor with several lengths of chain and cable, we moved a giant rock about 70 feet up a hill and into a spot near a random tree in the front yard.

Tomorrow, we’re heading out for more riding. Since we don’t have a checkout/lunch deadline, we’re going to check out the more difficult loops over the next couple of days. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll get a few extra photos :)