50 Miler.

Seven years ago, I received a phone call from a mission friend. He asked me if I would help him with his scouts 50 mile bike ride. We went out to the desert west of the Salt Lake Valley, I followed the boys in my truck as they rode on parts of the Pony Express trail.

Now it was my turn to take the boys in my scout troop on a 50 mile bike ride. We have been partnering with the Bethesda and Potomac wards for the cycling merit badge. Our adventure began by camping along the Potomac river, at Swains lock, in Potomac, MD. On Saturday morning we were joined by Elder Hardie of the 70 and Bishop Marriott, both members of the Potomac Ward, and active cyclists. The would lead us (15 young men and 6 leaders) from the campsite to the Washington DC LDS temple. From there we rode down Rock Creek Park (which I may add is beautiful this time of year). We stopped by the Lincoln Memorial to take the above photo, we turned around at a very windy Haines point. From the Lincoln Memorial we took the Capital Crescent trail back to the C&O tow path to our camp.

I would post the data from my garmin, I'm sure about 3 of you would find that interesting. I will say we set off at 9:30 am... 57 miles later... I finished about 30 minutes before the next scout/leader. All the boys and leaders were back safe by 5:15pm...

Three of the boys did the ride in jeans, I told them how impressed I was that they rode in jeans, one of the boys piped up and said "I did it in skinny jeans!".