Keep tryin'

About 2 miles north of our house there's a BMX track. Wyatt noticed it the other day during the Pioneer Day picnic, and let us know that he wanted to go. We had some time a couple of weeks ago one evening so we headed up there.

He's not the bravest kid in the world, nor is he overly talented athletically. I wasn't growing up either, (and I'm still not). As we sat at the starting gate he said he'd go first. If you don't know, BMX tracks always start at the top of a ramp, so you can get some good speed going. Shortly after you hit the bottom of the ramp there's short flat section and you hit the first bump. On the track we were on the starting ramp was about 10-15 feet high and the first bump was a tabletop type with about 6 feet of flat at the top.

Wyatt took off down the ramp and didn't touch his brakes. He went from riding a bike to riding an irate bull in about 3 seconds. As he crested the first bump, he was thrown pretty good, but managed to hang on to the handlebars. His stomach was resting on his seat and he was trying to use his feet to stay upright. It didn't work. He slid down the backside of the bump, and stopped in a pile.

He was pretty shook up and had to take a good break. We talked and he decided to keep going. He took a couple of other less dramatic falls because he was a bit more judicious in his speed and sometimes couldn't make it up the bumps. After we completed the first lap we sat at the top of the ramp. I could tell he was nervous, but after a couple of minutes he took off. We took a couple of more laps and he gained a bit of confidence each time, and figured out a good balance of speed. I was proud of him for sticking with it even though he was pretty shaken up. Ginet took some pictures that will give you and idea of what the track was like. She and the other kids came up after us, so the initial crash wasn't captured on film, just in our memories.