Departe

Since when do ten year old boys not like getting dirty and playing in the mud? I must be missing something. So once a week I volunteer coach with the Sprockidz, a mountain bike skills and knowledge camp. It's a fun way to get some extra miles in and maybe help some kids get into the sport. And it lets my own kids receive some coaching on technique from someone other than me, someone they'll actually listen to. Last night's session was going well until it started to rain. At first it wasn't anything too bothersome, a nice sporadic sprinkling of large droplets. We decided to finish the night be riding a bit of single track to get the kids used to the idea and to practice some of the skills we'd be teaching. By the time we got onto the trail, it had started raining harder and the dirt, a nice rich glacial dirt, had turned to mud. Fun riding for that brief time when the base is still firm, but you have a nice thin layer of mud on top. Yet there were three of the six kids in our group who, as soon as they realized that they were getting muddy, began a raucous and continuous complaining about being wet, being cold, having mud in their mouths, and mud on their clothes. Really? When I was that age if I had an adult actively encouraging me to play in the mud...I'd be all over it. I guess I am really becoming a crotchety old man and the times they are a changin'. The funny thing is that the lone girl in our group was the only one who really embraced the experience, getting filthy and wanting to go back out on the trail for more.