Laboring Up Burke Mountain

After discovering the Burke Bike Barn last summer, we tried to reserve it for every Labor Day and every Memorial Day forever. Fortunately Doug accepted our reservations for Labor Day this year. Hopefully he has us penciled in for the next 20 years. We love it here! It is a magical place.

It was made even more magical this year by the presence of a rare blue moon Friday night.

Followed the next morning by some brilliant sunshine and crisp blue skies.



Before we could get on with the real reason for being in East Burke all weekend, taking in all the lovely views from the dirt roads and trails, we had to first race up Burke Mountain, but we managed to get that over with in just a bit over 30 minutes!

We then climbed the tower at the top while waiting for the all clear to ride down.

Next up was lunch and the awards ceremony, where being the only tandem entered, we took home gold medals. To our credit, we did manage to take off over two minutes from our previous record, and finish in front of all the gals!

With all that out of the way, we could head out on a proper ride. Cristine borrowed my Redline to join us for a loop up toward Lake Willoughby. We had the clearest blue skies we've ever experienced at the lake. It seems it's usually cloudy and dreary when we ride up there, but this day was glorious.