Rock Island Trail Ride

Sunday December 22, 2019, the weekend before we didn't get to ride due to SNOW and COLD and the temps stayed cold after that 6+inch snowfall till late Thursday but with a decent temps and sun shine on Friday and Saturday, there had been a good melt here in Security so we HOPED the trails in Colorado Springs would be in decent shape. We decided to ride the Rock Island Trail as it had been a while since we rode there. We loaded up the truck with the trikes and parked at Bott Park, unloaded, then rode over to the Shooks Run Trail for about a mile to the "junction with the alley way that starts the Rock Island Trail heading north. Well the alley way was covered in 2-3 in. deep snow, it's great to have "3" wheels on the snowy, icy surface, with a bit of slip-sliding here and there we got to the actual trail and found it was in better shape with just snow/ice here and there. It had been plowed at least some so we headed to the end point of the trail at Powers Blvd. 10 miles away. It was a nice day, 60F with only high thin clouds and just a little breeze we just plodded along and enjoyed being able to RIDE!

We stopped at one point and had a protein bar then continued north, we were worried that the underpass tunnel at Circle Drive might have deep snow or water but it had been mostly plowed so we didn't have to slow down and take the Ped crossing light! JoLynn got to try her new gearing set up, from the stock 30/40/52 triple chain wheel set to a MTB 22/32/42 set and from 170mm crank arms down to 155mm crank arms which works out GREAT for her as she only has a 26 in. inseam and it was a lot easier for her to SPIN instead of semi-MASH the pedals!! :) We shared the trail with walkers, runners, riders and HORSES too so there were a lot of smiles and wishes of "Merry Christmas"! :) We went to the end of the "concrete" and decided NOT to take the last 1/4 of gravel and SNOW/ICE to the end point. Turned around and stopped at a "bench" to eat our "brown bag" lunch. Got back on the trikes and headed south back to the park, loaded up the truck and headed out to do some food shopping before taking the trikes back to the storage unit and tucking them away till next time!  13 miles, would have loved to do more miles but the sun was heading down fast this time of year!! :)

Back to riding "2" trikes, we use to have a TT Rover TANDEM Trike now it's been converted back to a SINGLE Trike for BJ! :)

This is to older asphalt sections of the Rock Island Trail, hopefully they will "concrete" it as it's getting pretty rough with a lot of frost heave cracks!

The newer section concrete starts just past Union Blvd. and goes "almost" all the way to the current end point at Powers Blvd.

JoLynn and her used, Trident Stow Away I trike and ME with the upgraded Terra Trike Rover Trike, ready to head down hill! :)