Church Rocks

With moving into the new house I have really become lazy. There is no other way to put it. I use to ride, hike, run or bike at least five times a week. I sorta hit a wall after moving and have become a sloth and it is showing. I am attempting to get back into the routine of doing some physical activity more than just once a week, in a mad spurt of ambition to follow through with this goal I decided to check out Church Rocks. I woke up Saturday morning with the intent to sneak out and go for a solo ride. I must not have been quiet enough because soon Sarah was in the car with me. I am always thrilled to have the kids go ride with me.

We started at Heritage Park in Coral Canyon riding the paved bike trails up to the water tower. Getting Sarah that far was like pulling teeth. She is a great little down hiller but desire her to put any effort into it and you might as well stack peas with your nose.

After resting at the top and talking her into going to the bottom on the other side of the water towers, we battled our way through the jungle of branches and found the tunnel that goes under the freeway. It was eerie trying to ride through the tunnel with its rounded walls you better have good balance and control on the bike. Sarah put her legs out and pushed along. We decide that we had been swallowed by the rabbit hole.

On the other side it was slow going, very rocky. We had to carry our bikes over the rocks and up the trail. We rode for about 200 ft before crossing the wash again which meant carrying the bikes. Of course none of this was sitting well with Sarah. I got a lot of eye rolls and “can we go back” statements. Not knowing the trail at all and not really seeing any relief from her frustration with the trail we turned around and headed back to the car.

Sunday I got up earlier and was quieter as I pulled out of the garage. I decided to take a different approach to the trail head. I parked not far from a Maverick station just off the freeway and headed past a do not trespass sign down a dirt road that looked like it went right to the tunnel. I did have to climb over a fence but made it to the tunnel with considerably less effort than parking at Heritage Park. I made good time through the wash and was on my way. I found the trail to be rather nice. Finished the whole loop in about 45 min. With the exception of the hill you have to climb to get up on to the slick rock I felt the trail would be a nice ride for the kids. It just so happened that we had no school on Monday.






I dragged everyone out of bed early Monday morning with the promise that we would eat at Bear Claw for breakfast after the ride. I was pretty confident that we could finish the trail in 1:30 min. For the most part I think the kids enjoyed this ride. They still complain way more than is necessary especially Sarah. We completed the ride in about 1:45 min not bad. We headed to Bear Claw for breakfast but it was over run from out of towners. After discussing our options we headed to Jazzy Java’s one of our favorites for breakfast. Highly recommend their croissant French toast!