Spring in the Pacific Northwest is putting on a show today. Highs of 71, blue skies, the whole thing. Last Friday was Bike to School Day in our area, and I watched my 5th grader zoom off down the street this morning and felt a wave of something. Gratitude, maybe. Or just the particular pride of watching a kid who has genuinely figured out how to move through the world on two wheels.
Both of my boys were on Strider balance bikes from the moment they could stand. Around two years old. When we lived in Seattle, I had my youngest in a child seat on the back of my bike and my five-year-old pedaling behind me in the bike lane all the way to school. Looking back, that was probably pretty ambitious for a kid that age. But I only had one child seat, he had energy that needed somewhere to go, so he rode.
Still, there is a real difference between being able to ride a bike and actually knowing how to ride. That is where Parks and Recreation mountain biking camps for kids changed everything for us.
Neither of my boys had any formal instruction before those camps. What they came home with, and I mean actually came home and taught me, was a whole language I did not have. Pedals parallel to the ground when rolling over roots so you do not knock yourself off the trail. Using your own momentum the way you would on a pump track, so hills feel like less work than they look. Pacing yourself on longer routes. And the thing that stuck with me most: pack it in, pack it out. Leave the trail better than you found it.
I picked them up from kids mountain biking camp with smiles on their faces and mud absolutely everywhere. That combination is basically my definition of a successful day.
What I love most is that the camps grow with them. Every year the routes get more technical, the skills more refined. They are not aging out. They are leveling up. I will always be grateful that kind of summer camp exists for them here in the Pacific Northwest.
A lot of my friends in the city did not have the mountain biking option nearby. Many of them swear by Pedalheads, the learn-to-ride bike camp available in cities across the US and Canada. And this is where every parent I know has had the same experience: your kid will not learn this from you. It does not matter how patient you are or how many times you have done it yourself. Something about the combination of a stranger, a helmet, and a group of other kids makes the whole thing click in twenty minutes when you have been trying for two summers.
Skiing is exactly like that for us. I will not even attempt to teach my own children on a ski slope. We hand them over and walk away.
Which brings me to next week. It is May, mountain biking camp season is just getting started, and I am already thinking about ski and snowboard camp registration. Yes, already. If you have ever tried to get a spot in a good snow sports camp, you know why. Come back next week and I will have everything you need to know. Spoiler: it is not too early to register.