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Family Trips

What is a Family Mountain Bike Trip  Western Spirit Cycling has created a series of mountain bike trips specifically for families. Our Family Trips can accommodate both children who have begun to ride their own bikes, and those who need a tow from mom or dad. These trips make it possible for you to take your family into the backcountry for a fun, safe, and relaxing mountain bike vacation. As usual our trucks carry all the camping gear and our guides do all the cooking.  What to Expect  On our family mountain bike trips we bring additional guides especially equipped with a large array of games, toys, arts and crafts designed to both entertain and educate your children about the natural and cultural history of the areas we visit. We build sedimentary layers to explain geology, do scavenger hunts for flowers and pine cones, and look for fossils and Indian ruins. The result is actual relaxation for the parents and big fun for the kids. We work to group families with children of similar ages. Children can ride their own bikes, ride a trail-a-long bike behind mom or dad, or ride in a Burley trailer. The result is outdoor fun for the kids and refreshing relaxation for you.  How do we do it   Mornings: A typical day on one of our family tours begins with a big Western Spirit breakfast. After which we prepare for the morning's ride. This is usually a short 4-8 mile section on a flat easy trail with our support van in close proximity. Everyone is encouraged to participate in this part of the day. The guides coach the kids with pointers and various distractions including singing and story telling. Before we know it the entire entourage has arrived at the lunch spot, where we enjoy a picnic Western Spirit style. Afternoons: After lunch, the kids pile into the support vehicle and either sag the group or head to camp. Either way the guides have a large bag of entertaining tricks. Once at camp, a special play tent is set up to house drawing and games. Scavenger hunts and fossil expeditions are launched. Meanwhile the parents can choose between heading to camp with the kids, or doing a ride on either a double track or singletrack trail. This way everyone is able to do as much riding as they like. Evenings: Between 3:00 and 4:00 everyone returns to camp for naps, reading and solar showers. Hors d'oeuvres are served while the guides prepare dinner. Special requests are happily catered to and dessert is served around the campfire.  The Menu  The Western Spirit menu is healthy and abundant. All our ingredients are fresh and plentiful, and we are happy to accommodate special requests. We try to have the kids enjoy the same offerings, but if spongebob squarepants mac & cheese is what they need after their day of riding...well... OK! Breakfasts include blueberry pancakes and sausage, eggs and potatoes, French toast and bacon, steel cut oatmeal, and our now famous Western Spirit Breakwiches. Fruit salad and cereal are also available. Lunches include sandwiches with cold cuts, cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, and red onions plus a lunch salad of Asian slaw or our famous sun dried tomato couscous. We also serve turkey grape wraps, cashew chicken pitas, taco salad burritos and a greek lunch spread with tabouli, hummus and feta balsamic salad. Peanut butter and jelly is always a staple too! Dinners include gourmet burgers with fresh veggies, teriyake ginger grilled chicken breast and barbeque chicken for the kids, fettucini alfredo with a choice of plain red sauce for the kids and steak fajitas with all the fixin's. Desserts include chocolate fondue, hot carrot cake, Dutch oven brownies, and of course smores. We make it all right there in our camp kitchen before your very eyes.  Group Sizes  Most trips are limited to 13 guests and two guides, giving us one of the best guide to guest ratios in the business. On custom trips we can add guides to accommodate larger groups. You may have a group of friends who want to join you on a trip, or you might find it is easier and more fun to make some new ones. Western Spirit guests come from all over the country and the world. In many cases people who have met on one of our tours will get together after the trip and coordinate the following year's trip to include the same group.  Guide Support  We've specifically hired guides who have an afinity for kids, some are teachers through the year and some have been involved in other forms of kid's outdoor programs. Our family trips are supported with three guides, where two of the guides are making the trip happen - cooking, setting up camp etc. and the third guide's role is to entertain your kids. Funny it seems to work the other way in a lot of cases - your kids entertain us! Either way, you are free to read a book at camp, do more riding at your own pace or join in the bike limbo.  Camping  Camping and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly. The great thing about a family trip is that your kids have a peer group and you have a peer group too. Everyone has someone to play with! Since our trucks carry all the gear, the camping is pretty comfortable. Our guides do all the cooking, so you are free to explore the area, take a nap, or have a cocktail. Plentiful fresh food, solar showers, and our Maine loungers make the starlit nights both comfortable and unforgettable.  Let us Help  Read about our trips, send us an email, or, better yet, call us at 800-845-2453 when you are ready to start to plan your next family mountain biking adventure. We will be happy to help you determine which of our trips is best for your family.  MAKING A RESERVATION  Families tend to plan early, so our family dates fill quickly. Give us a call and let us know when you'd like to travel and we'll help you choose a trip. When you make your decision, call us to confirm your choice and reserve your spot with a credit card deposit of $400. The deposit for south of the border trips is $550. You may also book a trip on-line.

"Meagan and Kiran were wonderful, fun, hard-working, pleasant, and great to be with!! They made the trip extra special with the Easter egg hunt, the pinata, and all the encouragement they gave my nephew and me. "

Nancy McRae, April 2004