Our anniversary ride

This past Sunday was our 6th anniversary. Our usual means of celebrating - a nice room on the coast, plus dinner - weren’t anything we wanted to avail ourselves of given the current circumstances. We thought and thought and just hadn’t come up with anything when a friend mentioned the rail bikes on the Skunk Train tracks. This sounded perfect to us both.

We booked the ride, which is a bit spendy ($250/couple) right then. Our friend thought the ride included lunch, but it does not. We had three choices - a very early morning ride, a mid-day ride and an afternoon ride. We chose the afternoon.

We arrived just in time to watch one of the Skunk trains pull in to the depot, then we were gathered to be given instruction on how to handle the rail bikes. The bikes are two-seaters that you pedal recumbently. The seats are comfy and there’s a small basket at the front to put some snacks or a purse or some such in. The right side is the “driver’s” side - it’s where the battery for the pedal-assist resides and where the throttle is located, as well as the brake. There’s no steering, however. You just start up using the throttle, then, once moving, peddle to keep moving or brake to slow or stop. The wheels are designed to ride the tracks and the tracks take you where you are going.

We started off well enough. We had to get through a few street crossings and then we rode along Pudding Creek; very pretty and nice and cool. We had brought along a bottle of bubbly and two plastic flutes to enjoy along the way. Since we didn’t have to steer, this was easy enough. However, just a little way in, my husband started looking at the wheels and questioning their staying on the track. I said, no, they are designed to stay on - if the bike gets too far to one side, the other side will catch. Not a minute later we derailed. I was covered in bubbles, I lost my glass, everything in our basket went flying and we got really shaken up. We were unhurt, coming to a stop fairly quickly. We held up the whole group as we gathered everything that had gone flying and the guides put our bike back on the rails. We continued on down the tracks, slowing at every orange flag (the guides said that we should do that - after we derailed), though we quickly realized there were orange flags everywhere. In a short time we were at the end of the tracks, where a lovely picnic area has been set up and some nice trails meander up and around.

We took the hike, which was lovely and well built. We got back in about enough time to get back on the bikes to head back. All seemed well enough, but about midway we derailed again. This time was less dramatic - we felt it coming and stopped pretty quickly. The man behind us was flabbergasted - he had seen the whole thing and knew we hadn’t done anything to cause it. We got back on the tracks with his help - the guides in front didn’t know anything had occurred. The rest of the ride was uneventful, thank goodness.

I told the guides they should flag our bike - no one else had a problem, so we think it may have had something to do with that particular bike. On the one hand, we were a little rattled, but unhurt and on the other, we at least walked away with a good story to tell! I would recommend this to anyone considering it - it was fun. But it will be better when the tunnel is repaired and the ride can be a little longer. Hopefully they can figure out a way to keep the bikes on the rails better too. But it was a nice way to celebrate and do something together.