The Centennial Trail out of Woodland Park, Colorado

On Sunday the 27th. we loaded up the trikes in the van and headed west up Hwy. 24 to Woodland Park, CO. to ride the trail along highway 67 to Deckers. We found it has a name, it's the Centennial Trail and it has a official trailhead and start point, just north of the local Movie Theaters. LOL, we didn't know that so we parked the van at the Visitor Area on the main road, the advantage is that the VA has "RESTROOMS"!!  When your 60+ that's a good thing, we unloaded and prepped the trikes and headed across the main road heading north, then west and luckly we found the trailhead. The trail while it's in the town of Woodland Park is smooth and nice, a total of "8 miles long" and goes to the Manitou Lake State Picnic Area, (be advised they require a FEE for entry, only $3.00 for bikes/trikes) to use the facilities.

It's fast downhill run at first then a lot of short but sharp uphill grades, around mile 2, just north of the Impact Baptist Church, the trail turns UGLY, well if you don't have suspension, which our trikes "do not"!!!  For a couple of miles there are "6 inch deep and 3 to 6 inch wide crevasses" covering the whole trail, a lot of them so we had to go "VERY SLOW" so as not to damage or be tipped over by this section, we both actually had our "chains pop off the front chain wheel, it was that rough!!  After that it was ok in some and less but still ROUGH along whole rest of the trail. :( We got to Manitou Lake, used the restrooms, pulled up a nice flat rock and ate a Cliff Bar or two and drank more water. Finally we headed back and found out there's a LOT more hills going back. On a couple some dirt had washed over the trail and JoLynn lost traction so we had to walk her tike up the hills!  We finally got back, quite tired as having to go so slow and losing so much momentum added 1-hr. each way to the total time to ride the trail.  The views are stunning, it's such a SHAME that the trail has such poor maintenance in some sections, it could be so very fun to ride! :(

Checking the progress on the Midland Trail

Well now that we have "transportation" of our own, I loaded the Eco-Tad into the van and parked at America the Beautiful Park in down town Colorado Springs, CO. LOL, after I got the Trike set up, got clipped in, I took off and discovered that "ALL" of the exits out of park to the start of the Midland Trail from C. Springs to Manitou Springs were "CLOSED" due to area construction!!! Oh, well I did know a round about way to get to the Midland Trail so I headed out and picked it up. The Midland Trail is a older trail, that's been changed a lot over the years. It's nice cause it's got several places with small/short bridges over Cheyenne Creek heading west from downtown. It's mostly concrete except for a section from 21st. to 25th. Street, which is currently set up for a detour on sidewalks and back streets. In the past you rode the trail to Ridge Rd. then it took forever to cross the intersection of Colorado Ave. and Ridge Rd. Now they are building a "under the street bike/walk accessway" that will hook to a "Bike Island Rest Area" between C. Springs and M. Springs! Hopefully completed by summer/fall 2019. For now the "construction flaggers" will stop auto traffic so a bicycle can pick up the detour route back over to the trail into the Manitou Springs Swimming Pool Park. From there it continues as a graded dirt path for a while and then you have to pick up "back streets" into Manitou Springs down town itself. Did a 12 mile round trip, after I got the trike stowed back in the Van, I went over to the "Tiki Bar" at my LBS, (The Colorado Springs Bike Shop) and got a glass of their "homemade" Bicycleville Root Beer! Sunny, breezy, 70F.

The Julie Penrose Fountain, America The Beautiful Park, downtown Colorado Springs, CO. 

Riding the Lake Pueblo State Park Rail Trail

On Saturday, May 12th. We loaded up the van with the trikes and headed 50 miles south to ride the Rail Trail at Lake Pueblo State Park, just outside of Pueblo, CO. We had a great time, we rode 19 miles total, though city, light forest and desert like landscapes. We had lunch at a great little café, right on the trail at the Nature Center, excellent grilled turkey sandwhiches and root beers in a "iced mug"!!  We'd highly recommend this all concrete trail, lot's of picnic areas, swimming area and even a marina or two. Pueblo get's a bad rap but this trail is great!
Lake Pueblo State Park

The National Bike Challenge

I joined the "National Bike Challenge" which started May 1st. was only able to get in 7.7 miles but did a lot of HILLS to compensate for the time.  My ride was around the Security Area where I live but I did a lot of squiggly streets between the hills to get some miles on STRAVA so they could auto update to the Love to Ride-National Bike Challenge!  Enjoyed the ride in windy, partly sunny conditions, which looked a LOT better by afternoon as the day started with total DARK clouds and no sunshine!!  National Bike Challenge this is the link to NBC, join up and have some fun, BTW, I still need 5 recumbent trike riders to fill my team, "TEAM Recumbent Trike" (a total of 8 members per team) so pls. join up, thanks! :)