Biking Guadalupe River Trail
2017-04-09
It was a beautiful sunny day, not too warm not too cold. Perfect for biking. We originally intended to park at the Children's Discovery Museum parking lot, but it was full, so we parked at the lot near the light rail station again. Little J was eager to bike, but we told him it's a bit dangerous for him to bike the initial part due to numerous ramps and sharp turns. When we got to the San Jose Airport area, Little J insisted on biking, and since that area was straight and flat, I let him down to bike on his little balance bike. He averaged a pretty fast pace at 4-5mph, and even going down and up a few underpasses. After 3 miles of biking, he started showing signs of tiring, slowing down and stopping frequently for water breaks. He still insisted on biking, though.
When we got to the Coleman underpass, the entire underpass was flooded due to recent heavy rains. If we were to try and pedal through the water, for sure the pedals would go through the water, and the distance was too long to just try and "coast" through. Hubby suggested rolling the bike through the water by placing one foot on the pedal, and using the other foot to step and push along the curb so we don't have to pedal. However, I was afraid that the trailer I was towing would get wet, because the bottom of the trailer sagged down a bit due to all the stuff in it. DK then suggested we can walk on the curb and roll the bike at an angle on the sloped embankment. That meant I had to carry Little J across first, followed by rolling my bike, followed by DK helping me roll the heavy trailer across. Everybody else rolled their bikes across in the same manner.
After that there were 2 more underpasses that were flooded, but there was no curb or embankment to roll the bikes on. We ended up getting off the trail onto the streets to detour around the underpasses. All these delays meant it was past noon, and we were still a long way from the restaurant based on Little J's biking pace, haha. He finally started complaining that he was hungry, so I told him that if he biked faster we'll go eat sushi. He exclaimed, "sushi!". Then he hopped off his bike and came over to hug me, saying "Thank you Mama, I love you too!" Hahaha, but I think he might just love sushi more than Mama ;)
By the time we got to the last Montague Expressway underpass which was flooded, Little J had biked 4 miles already. Since our detour would take us onto Montague Expressway, I didn't feel safe letting Little J bike on the big expressway. I told him he'll need to ride in the baby seat. He was reluctant, asking "why?", but we finally got him into the baby seat. By this time it was around 12:30pm, and I asked Hubby to bike ahead to the restaurant with the Older J's to get a table and order food for the boys first.
When we finally got to Yo Yo Sushi's, the older J's were almost done eating, and the rest of us were starving. Food sure tasted good, haha! Little J pigged out and ate a ton.
After lunch, we biked to Thamien Park, and Little J insisted on biking the half mile there. We hung out there while the kids played handball, ran around on the playground, bulldozed and scooped sand with trucks that we brought, and drove DK's high-speed RC's.
We decided not to hang out at the park too long due to having to take detours around the flooded underpasses. After packing up everything, Little J still wanted to bike. Hubby decided to get off the trail onto the streets to avoid the first flooded underpass. The exit ramp was a long downward slope with a sharp U-turn to get onto the street. Little J gleefully coasted down the ramp with his legs up, gathering quite a bit of speed. I was biking behind him and yelled at him, "Brake! Brake! Use your brake!" but he didn't slow down enough before the turn. He crashed right into the concrete wall, getting flung off the bike with the side of his head hitting the wall. He was crying and complaining that the inside of his thigh hurt where the bike saddle hit him, but luckily his head was fully protected by his helmet, so his head was fine and not hurting. I held him and soothed him for a few minutes, and then he stopped crying, slid down, and immediately got right back onto his bike continue the rest of the way. We all stared unbelievingly at him, haha. The poor thing stopped after just a bit though, and complained that his thigh still hurt, tried to bike some more, then stopped again complaining his thigh hurt. We finally convinced him to ride in the baby seat so that his thigh can recover, and that he could always bike again once it stopped hurting. Several minutes after riding in the baby seat he was completely out and fast asleep!
We bypassed the initial 2 flooded underpasses, but there wasn't a way to detour around the Coleman underpass, so we had to perform the same dance rolling the bikes and trailer across the embankment.
Little J had biked a total of 5 miles, while the Older J's biked the entire 17 miles. After we loaded up everything, we met up again at Cơm Tám Thiên Hương to eat dinner before heading home. Pictures & Videos
Following are pictures and videos of the trip.
