Watridge Bike & Hike... & Moose

So we have arrived at the West Wing for a week off, and today, opted to test out our new bike carrier by doing a bike/hike to Watridge Lake and Karst Spring. We have hiked this a few times, and the first 3.6 km is a boring fire road -- a natural for a mountain bike. This easy road seemed a natural for a first experiment as a bike/hike (bike a bit, hike a bit). We learned that the uphill part isn't better than hiking, but the downhill part certainly is.

We hiked this lat in October when it was icy and slippery. It was not that today. It was a fantastic day to be out. The spring and the waterfall were running strong & were fabulous.






We were tight for time so didn't have a lot of time to hang at the lake, which is very pretty.



Biking on the way uphill, it turns out, is 30%-50% faster than walking. On the way down, is easily 50% to 70% faster. Normally it takes us about 50 min to get to the lake; on a bike it was 35 min. On the way down, we made the car in 20 min.

On our way home to intercept Emma (who is our first of 5 visitors this week) we saw a pair of moose in front of Mt. Engadine Lodge. My brother is impressed that we ever see moose; me too, because these two are the first two moose I've been able to get photos of in a decade or more.