The last ride of 2025 and the first ride of 2026

 December 31, 2025- Last ride of the year, decided to head up to the Creekside Coffee House via the PPGW and Cottonwood Creek Trail to get a hot tea and eat our brown bag lunch. It was a beautiful day, sunny, mid-55 F temperature. We then headed back to the PPGW and picked up Sinton Trail up to a turnaround point on the Foothills Trail back down to Sinton and the PPGW and headed back to the apartment, great day to RIDE and a nice ending to 2025!

January 2, 2026- Food Run and a lot more to get in a RIDE: Desperately needed to do a serious Food and Household Supplies Run! Headed out on the Rock Island Trail over to the Credit Union for cash and then back to the RI Trail heading to the Union Blvd Walmart Market Place store! Did the shopping, loaded up the stuff in the cargo trailer and panniers. Back to the apartment to put the cold items in the refrigerator. Headed out via RI up to hook up with Cascade Ave bike lane over to the Mavrick Station Store for lunch, hotdog, BBQ chips and an iced tea!

From there, we rode back to the bike lane to pick up the T-Gap trail south over to the PPGW and headed north to do the Vincent Street Loop Ride. DUH, we forgot our Think Bars, so we headed down the Nevada Ave Path over to the University Village Colorado Center's Panera Bread. We split an untoasted cinnamon swirl and raisin bagel and a small, iced tea. Through the center back to the PPGW and then rode all the way to Duck Lake, toured the lake and headed back on the PPGW to the apartment. LOL, turned a 6-mile Food Run into a 21-mile RIDE, as the sun was sinking low in the sky! 

Not a bad way at all to start a New Year, the weather was Chilly and Gray to start but after we got the food back, the clouds slowly parted, and we had sunshine for the rest of the ride!

That catches us up here on the old, BLOG! I don't normally take video on a Food Run as, according to the "WEATHER", it can be a short run or a long run! Taking a break on the 3rd. Hoping to RIDE on the 4th. as it's going to be 60F and SUNNY, YEA! Till we come together next time, HAPPY TRAILS.

December 2025- It's been a good month for December but the COLD, Wind and a dusting of Snow is here!

 Been fortunate enough to have a lot of decent riding weather this December but today it's 23F, a dusting of snow and a Bitter, COLD Wind! Time to update the blog, hopefully we can get one more ride in before the end of the month!

12/19/2025- Errand run and a bit more of a ride- Got a service appointment at Angletech today to have a new chain and rear tire. Another nice winter day so the ride up Sinton Trail to the shop was chilly but sunny. After it was finished, we went and got a hotdog and BBQ chips at the Garden of the Gods Rd. Mavrick Station Store. 

The YouTube Video is short, I had an older SD card malfunction, so I only had the footage from the GoPro 11 Mini to use, sorry! We headed back to the apartment via different trails and bike lanes, not a bad ride for an Errand run!

12/22/2025- A ride before the Holidays- We had a couple of days of chilly, high winds, kinda days so there was a bit of a gap between rides. On the 22nd. we got a really warm day, so we just headed out and about using different trails to make kinda of a loop ride.

You know it's warm, when you see us riding in December without a jacket on!!

12/26/2025- A post-Christmas Ride to Manitou Springs- Well, like most of us, we didn't get to ride much due to the holidays and spending time with family! Christmas Eve was spent with my brother Bob, one of his daughter's family and in laws. Christmas Day, Bob joined us for a Christmas Meal at the Black Bear Diner! The 26th. was another sunny and warmish day so we hadn't been to Manitou Springs for a bit, decided to that's our days destination!

Westside PP Greenway over to the Midland Trail heading west, the Creek Walk Trail to its end at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs. Headed back the same way, it was and excellent day for a ride and felt great to get back on the trikes after a few days of eating and socializing! Headed back to the apartment and then cleaned Jo's trikes chain and drive train before tucking in the trikes.

12/27/2025- Ride to EAT & Eat to RIDE- LOL, we got a visa gift card for Christmas, there was a possibility of High WINDS for December 27th. The morning dawned sunny and the winds were not bad, so we decided to head to the Sacred Grounds Cafe heading up to North Cheyenne Canyon Park. This is a "bike lane" kinda ride, starting with a short stint on the Shooks Run Trail, Weber St. bike lane to the Tejon St. bike lane to the Cheyenne Blvd bike lane! It was a getting a bit windy at times but not real rough, so we continued to head towards the Cafe. 

We finally arrived but sadly they were only doing a "holiday brunch" for Saturday and Sunday. We didn't want full course meals, so we got iced tea and ate our Think Bars. Headed up to the Starsmoor Center, Nature & Visitor Center for North Cheyenne Canyon Park. Heading back down, we decided to stop at FUZZY's Tacos in the Southgate area for lunch. YUM, the best chips and Queso in town and we tried shredded brisket Quesada's and of course, unsweet iced tea, the gift card covered 95% of the lunch, excellent. 

It was still sunny, but the wind was starting to get "gustier" so, we headed back on the Tejon St. bike lane but then headed over to pick up Shooks Run Trail south. Now, heading north on Shooks Run, still enjoying the sun and the ride even with the stronger wind, we headed to get one last iced tea at STIR's coffee house. The dark clouds were now coming in, the Cold Front was starting to come in for Saturday night/Sunday Morning, so we headed back to the apartment. 

December is coming to a close but there might be another ride Wednesday the 31st. if the weather isn't too bad! Now it's also possible for a Jan. 1st. 2026 RIDE, warm temps but very cloudy, hopefully not windy too! Thanks for checking out the BLOG, it's appreciated. Hope you all got in some rides during the hectic holiday season! Happy New Year to all and of course, HAPPY TRAIL'S.

Catching up on December Rides, 2025.

 Ok, ok as usual I'm behind my time as Mr. Cratchit said to Mr. Scrooge!  So here we go into the Month of December! We have had a lot of WIND some SNOW since the last blog entry so there are some big gaps in the ride dates!

12/8/2025- Food Run and new GoPro hard mount Test Ride- After my hard mounted GoPro 6 broke one of its attachments that made up the PLASTIC hard mount on the trike, I did a redesign with the camera mount in Aluminum!  After doing the shopping and getting back to the apartment to put away the food and supplies we headed out for a generic ride just to test out the new mount. Found out it was "too tall", and it shook badly on bad trail surfaces. It did however actually work so after getting back home I decided to go back to the drawing board!  

12/11/2025- Errand Run and Test Ride for the Revised GoPro Camera hard mount- We got a strange message that was supposed to be from Xfinity, we headed up to the University Village Colorado Center Xfinity store. Found out it was a scam so that turned out ok and we headed off for a bit of a ride. Rode up to Cottonwood Creek Trail and only road as far as the Creekside Coffee House. Headed back on misc. trails, lanes, etc. It was the test run for the revised GoPro Camera hard mount; this one was shorter but still "over my toes"! It did have less movement but the EIS program in the GoPro 6, couldn't compensate for the vibrations on the rough wood bridge crossings, RATS! Oh well I don't think I can do better so there will be some spots in the video that have a bit of bounce, sorry! Otherwise, it seems to be doing a good job, and I don't have to worry about it snaping off and sending my camera flying again!! :)

12/12/2025- Just out Wandering on a nice but Windy day- Sadly Jo got stuck at home awaiting here insulin meds from UPS. So, she told me to go take a hike, LOL, I mean RIDE. I headed up the Sinton Trail over to Angletech to get a service appointment for a new chain and rear tire installed. After that I headed back on the Sinton to the Foothills Trail and towards the entry into the Garden of the Gods. 

They have lot's of dirt hiking trails in the park but only one concrete trail and it usually has thousands of people on it. On this mid-December day, it was empty, so I headed up the trail to the starting point of the Loop Ride thru the park. I turned back to the Foothills Trail to get to the 31 St. bike lane over to the Colorado Ave Starbucks for tea and brown bag lunch. Headed east on the Midland Trail then the Pikes Peak Ave. bike lane to pick up the Shooks Run Trail and headed home.

12/15/2025- In search of Jo ride on a really nice day- Well now it was MY turn to be stuck waiting on a package but from FEDEX this time! A bit of luck, he arrived by 10:30 AM, I'd already sent Jo out for a ride since I had no idea when the package would show up. She had decided to ride up to the Creekside Coffee House so she could do a ride with no street crossings. 

I threw my stuff together and was out the door via trike by 11 AM!! Luck was on my side, I gave her a call, and she had just arrived at the Coffee House so, I did a "Flying 5K" and we met up for our brown bag lunch. The Creekside Coffee House is the ONLY coffee house/cafe where Jo can buy a "SUGAR FREE" hot chocolate, so she indulged but I was too hot and thirsty from hauling buns to get there so it was iced tea for me! We decided to ride the Cottonwood Creek Trail heading northeast to the concrete trail ending just after Powers Blvd. We headed up the trail, pass the park and thru the tunnel but found out that a couple of miles up the trail was blocked off due to some kind of construction project?? 

We did a turn around and headed back toward the Cottonwood Creek Regional Park for a nature break. Heading west to pick up the Pikes Peak Greenway and heading back to the apartment as it was getting late and the sun heads down behind the mountains by 4:15 PM nowadays! Sorry I got lazy and decided not to shoot video but just Enjoy the Ride so here is a few photos.

Well, that's the end of the December rides so far as like everyone else the Christmas Season has a lot of distractions and events and of course, let's not forget the By-Polar weather! We will be riding up to Angletech on Friday the 19th. to get my, Chain and Rear tire installed so there may be a bit more before the actual Holiday! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Hanukah/Chanukah, etc. All the best to You and Yours!