Aspen – Emma Kerr likes ice cream. The 7-year-old from Boise, Idaho, doesn’t care where it comes from or how she gets it. The ends justify the means.
So 32 miles into a hot, 42-mile bicycle ride from Glenwood Springs to Aspen on Thursday, Emma slurps away at a rapidly disintegrating ice cream sandwich, oblivious to the sweaty riders towering above her at the aid station.
Emma is the youngest rider in Ride the Rockies, which entered its fifth day with a steady ascent to the campgrounds at Aspen High School. She and her father, Steve, share a modified tandem/recumbent bike that allows her to sit in front while Dad provides the pedal power from behind.
“We got the bike from Germany,” her dad says. “We found it on the Internet. She was too big for a trailer, and she wasn’t big enough to ride her own bike.”
Emma’s mother, Barb, rides alongside the pair, making sure Emma doesn’t lose her grip on Sheep (her ever-present mascot) or her Polly Pocket dolls.
It’s been slow going for the family. The first leg of the tour – 99 miles from Frisco to Steamboat Springs – took 12 hours to complete.
Emma is the star of the show at the aid station, as the riders part to make way for the small blond in the purple helmet. She doesn’t seem to notice.
She’s just looking for the frozen treats 300 miles into the 422-mile tour.
She’s not entirely impressed with Colorado, either.
“There’s more McDonald’s in Boise,” she says.
In her seven years, Emma has become something of a world traveler, a trait shared by her parents. “Our honeymoon was a trip across America,” Barb says. Emma has been to France, Ireland and Switzerland, and she says the latter is her favorite.
“They have lots of ice cream shops.”
This is the family’s first Ride the Rockies tour; Barb Kerr said they are considering a cross-country ride next summer.
But for now, it’s on to today’s challenge – a hard climb to the 12,095-foot summit of Independence Pass. But Emma, her face serene and smeared with vanilla ice cream, doesn’t seem too worried.
She’ll return to Boise a seasoned Colorado cyclist. And that gives her bragging rights at school. She already knows what she’ll say to her classmates:
“Nyeah, na-nyeah, na-nyeah, nyeah …”
