just another girl on a bike: Biking and Hiking

Riding was pretty much status quo this week. I got out as much as I could but nothing spectacular. Chris and I ended up spending time putting sealant in some road tubes, hoping to minimize flats on the road. Hopefully it will work.
Chris has been riding the Alpine Loop early in the morning. The other day when he did it some campers had breakfast cooking and he decided he wanted to do a picnic breakfast up the canyon. We invited his mom and step dad to join us. While not entirely our intention, they took over the food. So day of Chris left from home to ride in and up the Provo side and end up at the picnic site. I left early with the car and dog, parked at the picnic site, and climbed up to meet him.
The climb was harder (and slower) than I anticipated. I initially thought (and hoped) to get to the top and start dropping down the Provo side. After starting I re-evaluated my expectations and just hoped to get to the top. Chris started to worry when he did not see me before cresting the summit. (Note: I also had no phone service and therefore could not answer his calls nor let him know my situation.) None the less just below the summit I ran into him. The combination of my weight and the gearing on my CX/road bike was almost too much for me, but I did make it to the top.
Then we descended back down to the picnic site for breakfast, followed by a hike. We went up to Silver Lake. It was a much more difficult 2.5 miles up, but I did pretty well. It was almost too much for Tex and Chris had to carry him at the very top. And amazingly Tex was o.k. with that...for a bit.