Exploring

The weather has been relatively nice as of late, so Erik and I often go for a walk after dinner to "explore" the surroundings of our neighborhood. Last night we turned what we intended to be a 20 minute walk into almost a 2 hour walk, but it was enjoyable and we "discovered" a path that we had never been on before. One of the beauties of living close to the Maribyrnong River is that there is a trail along the length of the river, which is easy to get to from our house. I regularly run on the trail, but I have been wanting to bike the trail because I can go much farther with less work on the bike than I can with just my own two feet!

This afternoon I decided to head out on my fancy old pink Trek to discover what lies ahead on the trail. Near our house, the trail is mostly packed sand or dirt and it is super smooth biking, so much so that you *could* probably manage the trail with a road bike. I assumed that most of the trail would be this way. WRONG! After I got a few km (yes, trying to work in kilometers here instead of miles!) into the bike ride, the sand turned to gravel, which then turned to rocks and sticks and mud. Let's just say I was happy that Erik had taken me mountain biking through Patapsco a few times when we were living in the 'Ridge. Not that this compares to Patapsco in terms of difficultly, but being that I had ZERO idea what was up ahead of me I most certainly would have turned around after the first rough patch without that previous experience under my belt.

The view from my bike when the path was easy to ride!

Overall I really enjoyed the bike ride and I'm excited to bike the path again with Erik once his mountain bike gets here (on that note we have received confirmation that our things are going to be delivered next Wednesday, exactly 3 months to the day that they left our home in Elkridge!). When I was on my way back home, I did notice a sign that said the trail was closed!

I didn't see anyone else on the path while I was riding, but it was the middle of the afternoon on a Friday so presumably most people are at work during this time. I'm quite sure that people still ride it despite the sign, as evidence by the orange fencing that has been cut down next to the sign. :)

From the path there is a really cool view of Melbourne's Buddhist Temple:

And the most random thing, by far, that I saw on my bike ride today:

Surfing, anyone?

As of now we have no formal plans for the weekend, but hopefully we'll do some more exploring and I'll have more fun stuff to share soon!