December 2020, Finishing up rides for the year, Dec. 20, 21, 25, 26

 Got a bit behind in the blog due to the Holidays but we are finishing up the year as of the 26th. of December as the weather is turning COLD and possibly snowy from now thru New Year's Day at least!! :( We got in short area rides on both the 20th. and the 21st. The 20th. was a chilly and WINDY ride for sure, the 21st. ride was much better weather and more enjoyable, then a cold spell but it broke on the 24th. so we were really happy to get in a Christmas Day Ride!! Here's a couple of video's of our ride. 

 Part One of the Christmas Day Ride: 

Part Two of the Christmas Day Ride: 

On the 26th. we headed out to see if we could see any "starting" of the new part of the Sand Creek Trail, as it's being built under the new Platte Ave. and Powers Blvd. bridge. Not much has been done for the trail, will probably have to wait till they finish the new "double bridge" set up and HOPE, they actually make it hook up with trail heading south. We rode a 21 mile RT route to the current end point of the Sand Creek Trail heading north, just past Fountain Blvd. but alas it still just comes to a end in a field. 

Maybe be next Spring/Summer we will see some real improvements!! Headed home, the bikes are tucked away in the apartment snug and warm! ;) We did well this year over all, I got very close to 1500 miles and Jo got very close to 1400 miles, last year I had 950 and she had 800 so it's a "improvement" over past years, we will consider that a WIN!! :) Hopefully 2021 can bring even more rides, miles of smiles as we call it!! Hope you got to ride a bit so Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year's to you all!! Take care, Ride Safe, have FUN!! BJ & Jo! :)

Changes to Jo's Electra Townie 21d

 Sadly it's been COLD and WET here since our last ride so I've been doing some changes to Jo's Electra Townie that she wanted done. Her bike came to us set up more like a cruiser so a couple of changes are done and one more in the works awaiting parts on order! #1. I changed out the seat from the "very wide" and kinda hard stock Townie seat to a blue/black ladies gel ergonomic spring saddle, then I added some softer blue/black handle bar grips. We'd already changed out the big FAT whitewall tires to some nice 26x1.50 Kenda Kwest road tires so now the bike is looking more like a "comfort bike" instead of a cruiser! :)

We are still waiting for a new "triple crankset" which will have 22/32/44 gearing and shorter 152mm crank arms which will make it so Jo can "spin" easier than the 28/38/48 crankset with 170mm crank arms that comes stock on her bike! Since the new crankset is black it will really update the appearance of her Townie. :)

My RANS Fusion will be getting a couple of changes too, I got it used,  with two different colored wheel/spoke set up's. Angletech ordered a matching front wheel and I too will be getting the lower gearing MTB style crankset (22/32/44) with 170mm crank arms instead of the stock 175mm, 28/38/50 set up. LOL, bike shops LOVE us cause we are always "updating" our bikes! ;) Looks like the weather will break today and we should be able to get in a some rides from Sunday thru Tuesday the coming week, YA! :)

December 8th. 2020-Ride to Cottonwood Regional Park, doing the brown bag lunch thing!

We had 3 days of nice weather but could only get out and about on the bikes on Tuesday. We decided to try a trail with more "uphill grades" and test Jo's knee rehab condition. Decided to head north on the Pikes Peak Greenway, then head east on the Cottonwood Creek Trail it's a constant uphill grade all the way to the Cottonwood Regional Park and have a brown bag lunch! Jo did pretty good only walking a bit on the steepest uphill grades. Yes, we wear masks while we ride, enough said! It was a beautiful day 60 F, sunny with just a slight breeze which is excellent at this time of the year!! I too am having a bit of "left knee pain" (yes I am old and have 2 types of arthritis), I think it's more to do with the "change" of leg movement from 2 years riding recumbent trikes and now going back to bicycles. I just need more riding time and the "new to me" 2007 RANS Fusion (crank forward) bicycle. Sadly we forgot to take photos so here is link to a video we made:

 It was a 17+ mile ride and we enjoyed being out and about and stopping for the brown bag lunch. Hope you all got to get in a ride as for us the weather is going to turn COLD from Friday on, RATS! :( Oh well we will RIDE when we can, Take care, Ride Safe, have FUN!

December 5, 2020-"Get the bugs out" RIDE #2

Got in a decent test ride for my "new to me" RANS Fusion CF bicycle, yesterday, tried one on Friday but had problems with my "adapted" fenders so I reworked them and on Sat. we headed out for easy ride as Jo my wife, has been recouping from a "strained knee"! The bike is almost a 50/50 machine much more like a LWB recumbent than the Electra Townie 21d I had before. Still taking a bit longer to adjust to the "upright" seating but that will come with time and miles! 16 miles RT and the bike worked excellent so as they say, "The Transformation is complete"! We rode area urban trails over to Manitou Springs and the Skate Bowl Park, had a protein bar at a bench by the creek and headed back as the sun set's quickly these days! Sunny, 55 F, little breeze and very nice day for Dec.! The pictures are along the Creekside Trail. Relive video: Relive Video of our ride

A different "new to me" bicycle for BJ and the first, "have to fix the bugs" ride! Dec. 4th. 2020

 Well sometimes, things just end up changing and you didn't really expect it! I was pretty happy with my "new to me", slightly rough Electra Townie 21d but made a mistake and test rode a RANS "crank forward" style bike at Angletech and really liked the machine!! LOL, of course I couldn't afford a new one and most of their used one's at the shop were still out of my lowly budget but leave it to Kelvin and the gang as he found a older Fusion model for sale at his brothers bike shop in Washington State!! :) So I put down a deposit, the bike came in on Dec. 2nd. and I went over to check it out, liked it and loaded it in the truck and headed home, (TOO COLD to ride that day!!!).

I got it to the apt. and pulled all the accessories off the Electra Townie and slowly figured out way to "adapt" them to fit the RANS Fusion! The 3rd. was Jo's birthday so we were busy and it was pretty windy! Sat. the 4th. it was going to be sunny, less wind and 55 F so we headed out for a 10 mile, "let's get the BUGS out of the bike ride", well we only made 5 miles and the front fender rubbed constantly and I forgot, (it's hell getting old!), to pack a 10mm wrench so I couldn't adjust it on the fly. we headed back to the apt. and I found other problems and spent the afternoon and early evening "doing the FIX". Suppose to almost as nice tomorrow so we will try for a longer ride!!! Here's a photo of the RANS Fusion after I got all the "goodies" on!

  

November 28, 2020, Out and About on the Bicycles, My wife Jo is released from her doctor for "strained knee" so we finally got to ride again!

 Well 2 weeks ago my wife strained her left knee. Today we headed out to find a few local area flat roads and trails so she could finally get a miles on he bike again! We started from our apt. and headed south on the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail over to the Palmer/Mesa Greenway, through down town Co. Spgs., CO. over to the Shooks Run Trail headed back north, stopped at The Tastee Freeze Drive In for a evil (shared 1) order of chili fries, YUM! :) Then headed home via the Fontenaro St. Bike Lane to Wood Ave and too the apt. Here is a video of our ride:

November 25, 2020, A short ride on different Urban Trails in Colorado Springs, CO.

On Tuesday the 24th. it was COLD and WINDY with spitting lite snow at times. On Weds. lucky for me we got a much better day, 40 F, sunny with just a slight wind!! I decided I needed to get in a at least a short ride with Thanksgiving on Thursday! Headed out to hook up with several of the local area urban trails. The only downer was that Jo couldn't come with me as she'd still "recuperating"  from her "knee strain"! LOL, even though I'm still getting used to the "upright" seating position on my Electra Townie 21d. My last ride was a "recumbent trike" a lot different but the ride was still very enjoyable! Here's a short video of my ride:

"Out and About on the Bicycles", Urban Trails Ride

 

November 19, 2020- A stunning late fall day for a ride!

 Well bummer, JoLynn has a knee swelling problem and she can't ride but she told me to go for a ride anyway, love that women!! :) It's November 19th. 2020 and WOW, it's already 70 F by 9 AM.!! That's a rare day in late fall, it's usually 40 to 45 F so yes, I headed out for a "out and about" ride on different trails, etc. Had to peel off the jacket almost right away and riding in shorts in Nov. is a real treat!! Stopped along the Rock Island Trail heading E. for a protein bar and water break and took a couple of photos. Then headed down the South Homestead Trail over to the Bijou St. Bike Lane to get to downtown Co. Spgs. and over to the westside and stop at the Colorado Springs Bike Shop to see if they have my favorite "soft foam" grips in stock. Rats, none but I paid and they now have them on order for me. After that I headed home slowly on the Interstate Greenway, (we call it the Pine St. Trail) to pick up the Pikes Peak Greenway over the Popcycle Bridge and back to the apt.! It's so nice to be able to just store the "bicycles" in our 2nd. floor apt. instead of having to have a separate storage unit, that we had to have for the recumbent trikes!!! The weather for the rest of the week, low 40 F, with possible light rain/snow showers Friday afternoon and on Saturday, RATS!! :( Oh well gota get those rides when you can with old man winter coming up fast! ;)

 

November 15, 16 and 17, 2020. A couple more short rides!

 

On November 15, we got out and about on the bikes and headed over to Manitou Springs via different urban trails and back streets. It was a nice but chilly morning, I decided to shoot a video but didn't notice that the "supposed" waterproof case for the camera "lightly fogs" in the colder temps so most of the 2 hr. footage had to be scrapped, rats. around 16 miles RT for the ride, here's what's left about 23 minutes of the last part of the ride so it's ok to make FUN of the video, I won't mind! ;) 

Out and About on Bicycles November 15th. 2020

Well I rode the bike to a different local shop to have a sweet looking set of fenders put on, November 16th. it was only around 4 miles to ride it to the shop to drop it off so I just walked home. They were really busy so they didn't get them on till just before close at 5 pm. so I headed down to the shop in my 27 year old Ford Ranger PU truck and picked up the bike! These fenders really spiff the bike up! It wasn't in real good shape when I bought it as the photo they showed on Craigslist was in a LOT better condition than when I drove 100 miles up to get it! :( So I nicknamed it UD, short for Ugly Duckling but it's turned into a fair Swan with cleaning, adjusting and upgraded accessories added!!  Might have to rename it Phoenix! :)

On the 17th. I decided to do some errands and pay a bill or two via bicycle! Then since the day was a nice one, I rode over to the Shooks Run Trail, headed to it's current ending point at Fountain Blvd. then took back streets over to Cascade Ave. heading north and picked up the "Bike Lane" back to the apartment!! 9.95 miles in the 60 F sunshine, nice utility ride! Jo couldn't go as she strained her knee while on a 5 mile walk yesterday, BUMMER!! :( Hopefully she will be ok to ride by Thursday as it's last decent (a bit windy) day with the "rain" coming in for the weekend! :(  Till then, Take care, Ride Safe and have FUN! :)

November 10, 2020-The first RIDE!

 There was still some traces of snow, here and there on the parking lot of our apartment building as we got ready to take the "first ride", although be it a short one on our Townie 21d's. It was sunny, slight breeze and around 37F degrees, we headed out to take the bikes to Old Town Bike Shop for "tune up's" and to have some accessories added. It's been a couple of years since we've ridden two wheeled bikes but we headed out and took to it just fine as we rode over the the credit union first then down the Shooks Run Trail towards down town and headed over Cascade Ave. bike lane to take us to the bike shop. We got there, really do like the way these bikes cruise. We got there a bit before opening time but the service tech came out and wrote up our repair tickets for us then took the bikes in. We waited outside in the chilly sunshine for about 15 minutes. We were helped by the store owner, Jon Crandell himself to find a few the wanted accessories. Boy bike shops really have almost "bare shelves" these days due to Covid Virus's!! 

  We left the shop and walked the 5 miles back to the apartment, stopped and had a great lunch a local cafe, the sun was now much warmer, it turned out to be a excellent fall day. Now we just have to wait for the call saying their done and we can go pick the bikes up. Hope to get them by the weekend as it's suppose to get a bit warmer!! :)

November 3, 2020-WE ARE BACK!!! :)

 Well, sometimes things work out, not like you'd hoped but they, like life, change to meet the situations! We've now sold both the recumbent trikes and thought we'd be "without wheels" for a considerable period of time but we found great bargains on a couple of Electra Townie 21d used bicycles thru Craigslist in Denver and Fort Collins, CO. We decided to spend a portion of the sale funds from Jo's trike and get on a list to purchase two Electra 7d's, these are 7 speed "feet forward" bicycles, cruiser styles for just riding our area rail and urban trails. We had to be placed on a "Waiting List" as bike production is wayyyy behind due to the Covid-19 Pandemic so we started looking at the USED market here in Colorado Springs, it was pretty dead, decided to try Denver and Ft. Collins and found not only much cheaper but 21 speed Electra Townies and bought them!! We picked up Jo's on Tuesday the 3rd. in Littleton, CO. It has been sitting in a garage for almost 2 years and only ridden twice before the senior lady decided she didn't like riding a bicycle! It is decked out very nicely!

 We then found one for ME, yes I wanted a Step-Thru version, (ok, you can call it a girls bike if you must!), it makes it much easier to get on and off and the "feet forward" design let's you get your feet on the ground quicker!! We will pick mine up on Friday, Nov. 6th. up in Longmont, CO. It's much more basic but even the same color! So we will be out riding again soon after we get Old Town Bike Shop to give them tune-up's!

I'll be adding fenders, lights, bell, etc. when we get it home, I'll be getting either black or aluminum colored fenders for mine, LOL, so we know "who's is who's"! ;) Got a appt. for the tune up's on Tuesday, Nov. 10, then we can head out for a RIDE! As the title states, Out and About on Bicycles!

Current Economic Situation SUCKS!! The end of our Recumbent Wanderings! :(

 Hello all who have been kind enough to actually follow us and our triking experiences on this blog! Well as you know we are both 65, retired and living ONLY on our Social Security Retirement's which even added to each other only come out to $26,500.00 a year!! Between prices soaring and being stuck in a very expensive place to live, (Colorado Springs, CO.) we just aren't making ends meet so we have decided to again, DOWN SIZE and sell our recumbent trikes! :(  1st. of all we will be able to close down the needed "Storage Unit" the trikes have to have and maybe we can look at NON-E-Assist bicycles as we could garage them in our upstairs apartment, looking at all possibilities but it doesn't change the fact the TRIKES have to be sold! Yep, it SUCKS but it's life in the current real world.

 So this is to let you know, this could be the LAST POST for our "Recumbent Trike" Blog! The Future could bring changes, so stay tuned! Thanks again for checking us out and to those who actually subscribed, it's been a blast! :) So for now: Take care, Ride SAFE and have FUN! END OF LINE! BYE :(

A quick start to riding in October 2020

 It's suppose to be VERY WINDY on Sunday, (Oct. 11) so we decided to get our rides in during the week days as we have a 5K Volksmarch in Woodland Park, CO. on Saturday the 10th! On Weds. the 7th. we decided to head out and ride the Cottonwood Creek Trail. We got to the Union Blvd. crossing and it was blocked off from all sides due to "gutter" construction so sadly we did a U-turn back down the trail and headed back downtown and did a ride of lot's of the Bike Lanes throughout the DT area. Ended up with 23 miles, semi-sunny but still a bit smoky from the forest fires in the West! We stopped at Panera Bread for some ice tea and then ate our brown bag lunch on the pavilion at the University Shopping Center. After a few more misc. miles here and there we headed back to the storage unit, tucked in the trikes and walked back to the apt.!

Friday October 9th., We decided to do a Big Loop Run, headed up the PP Greenway to take the Sinton Trail west, Foothills Trail and 31st. St. Bike Lane south, Midland and Creekside Trails west over to Schryver Park in Manitou Springs for our brown bag lunch. Headed east on the Midland into America the Beautiful Park, thru some down town bike lanes/side streets over to pick up Shooks Run Trail north back to the Pikes Peak Greenway, then Polk Ave. and Wood Ave. back to the storage area, tucked in the trikes and walked back to the apt.! 21 miles RT, 85 F+, sunny with for once a nicely CLEAR sky and view of Pikes Peak and the area foothills! Perfect day for a ride! :)

Local area trails, bike lanes, etc., September 26 and 30th. Just getting in any ride before it finally turns COLD!

 LOL, well since we haven't received any more Stimulus Money from the Fed. Government, we've just been hanging around our local area and getting in rides while the warm weather still clings on as we enter Fall and cold of WINTER on the way! On Thursday the 26th. we headed north on the Pikes Peak Greenway, then east on the Templeton Gap Trail over to Nancy Lewis Park for our brown bag lunch got back on the T-Gap Trail heading west this time back to the Greenway, then headed west on the Sinton Trail over to 3lst. Street, turned around again and headed back to the storage unit as we were going to our monthly "Game Night" with friends so we had to get back to the apt. to clean up! 16 miles RT, warm and sunny! 

September 30th. We headed out from the storage unit and took the back streets over to the Rock Island Trail heading east got to the current end at Powers Blvd. T-Gap Road bike lane heading south and then picked up back streets and rode different bike lanes and streets around and throughout down town Colorado Springs and came back heading north on the Cascade St. bike lane! LOL, had a guy pass us and give us a SNUB look of disgust, like oh it's those slow trikes, why don't they ride a rear bicycle!! Well I shifted up to the big chain ring and put the E-assist on 1 and hauled up behind him and stuck to his rear wheel for several blocks, then just blew by him, guess he found out the old folks on the Trikes are capable of hauling bunns if we CHOSE too, ;). 21 miles RT, sunny and a bit smoky due to the forest fires in So. WY. and No. CO. Hope the weather keeps up for a bit longer, not ready to have to bundle up just to ride!!! 

 

 

September 12, 15 and 20 rides, 2020

 We we out on local area trail rides that we've done a lot as of late so I'm not going to put in a big ride report for them!

Sept. 12 Ride: Tiny Chapel at the Rockledge Ranch inside the Garden of the Gods.

Sept. 15 Ride: Just a weekday ride on the Pikes Peak Greenway with a stop at the Good Neighbors Meeting House for iced tea and a banana! :)

On Sunday Sept. 20, we headed north on the Pikes Peak Greenway trail up to Woodman Ave. to hook up with the New Santa Fe Trail which is all DIRT thru the USAF Academy, Monument and Palmer Lake, CO and beyond. Decided to see how our trikes with treaded "ROAD" tires would fare on the short but steep, gravely trail! We decided our destination would be Ice Lake on the USAF Academy ground along the trail. It went good, had a bit of slippage here and there but with a little E-assist and spinning I made all the up hill inclines first try! Alas, Jo was having a bit of trouble on some but she just backed up and got a better run or dialed in a bit more E-assist and we made our way to Ice Lake which is a large fishing pond with a single track trail around it. We rode a short way north on the trail and found a parking area with a nice shade tree and flat large rock and ate our brown bag lunch! 

After accomplishing our goal, we turned around and headed back into down town via the trail to Boulder St., then headed back north to the storage area on the Cascade Ave. bike lane. 23 miles RT, 85 F, a bit hazy and smoky but a enjoyable ride! Might look into a different rear tire, more a dual-purpose type just incase we decide to get "DIRTY" in the future!! ;)

September 7th. 2020-A smoky ride on the Cottonwood Trail, new section scout out

With a new forest fire burning up in northern Colorado, our sky was smoky but we needed to get in a ride as a early season COLD front from Canada would drop our temps from the high 80F's to the high 30F's starting the next day!! We decided to ride the Cottonwood Creek Trail and this time do the "new section" from Austin Bluffs to just east of Powers Blvd. on the eastern side of  Colorado Springs, CO.  The trail starts at the junction of the Pikes Peak Greenway and the CC Trail then heads east up to the Cottonwood Recreation Area Park and beyond. 

 

The trail is very scenic with several low falls along Cottonwood Creek and lot's of little bridge crossings but it's a constant uphill grade all the way to Austin Bluff's and Woodman Ave. were the newer section of concrete trail continues and is more "rolling hills". There is NO shade on the new section so it can get hot! As stated we rode to the end of the new concrete, you can go further up to Tutt Ave. via a dirt trail but LOL, we don't do DIRT! ;) So we turned around and headed for CWR Park to eat our brown bag lunch and take a break. Now the FUN starts as all that uphill grade is now mostly down hill and with the smooth concrete it can be quite fast heading west towards down town! 

 

On the way back on the CCT to the PPGW we decided to stop and take a photo of the "man made" pooling area along Monument Creek along the Greenway.

Sadly the smoky sky was getting worse so we decided to head back to the storage unit and call it a day! Round Trip: 20-25 miles, 88F, very little breeze, a fun ride and JoLynn finally got a chance to ride the new section of the CCT so now the trikes are tucked in and we await the COLD and SNOW on Tue/Wed, arrugh, it's just TOO EARLY for this level of COLD, come back summer!! :)

September 2, 2020-Garden of the Gods, Motorless Mornings ride!

 JoLynn and I rode the Garden of the GODS, "Motorless Mornings" at the park today from 5AM to 8AM, there's no auto traffic allowed and it's only hikers and bike riders! We loaded up the PU truck with the trikes and headed over to the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort between Co. Spgs. and Manitou Springs. The set up a $5 continental breakfast from 7-10 AM. So we headed up to gain access to the park at the Trading Post entry way and headed up hill to ride the Garden Loop Rd. that goes around the whole park. It was great to see the sun rise and get in a great ride! After we finished we headed back to the Buffalo Lodge for the breakfast and then rode around Manitou Springs to get a total of 16 miles RT. Perfect weather, it was a very enjoyable ride, except for the slight malfunction I had with my seat, had to pull out the tools and loosen several bolts so I could move the seat forward to clasp the quick release in tighter!! Seems ok now! :)

August 25, 2020-Testing my new CamPark 4K video camera with audio mic and a local ride with at least "less smoke" from the fires!

 On Tuesday August 25, 2020 it was another HOT (90F+) day with hazy sunshine but you could actually make the outline of Pikes Peak today were you couldn't see it all last weekend and on Monday!! I found a great price break on a last years model CamPark ACT74 4K Ultra HD video camera and we did this ride to test it out. Sadly my You Tube channel isn't up to 4K yet so I shot the vid in 1080p (30fps) setting, even more of a let down, my internet connection is SO SLOW, that I have to convert it to a lowly 360p so it will upload from my computer to make a You Tube video, RATS!! :(

The other thing that a nice upgrade is that it has a "remote microphone" instead of the tiny built in one in my Vivitar 786 HD video camera and at least some level of, STABLEIZATION setting which the old camera had NONE so it's at least a bit more LESS bouncy!! :) We headed down the Cascade St. Bike Lane over to the Colorado Ave. Bike Lane to America the Beautiful Park to pick up the Midland Trail heading west to Manitou Springs, CO. and Schyever Park to have our normal "brown bag picnic". After the lunch we decided to head back via Pikes Peak Ave. as they are still doing construction work at Ridge Rd. and the Trail, it has a VERY steep and slick gravel ramp up to the street as a detour and I had to PUSH the trikes up to the street from the trail!!! At 65 we are getting too old to be doing that!! It's typical here as the City thinks the only bikes that ride the trails are Mountain Bikes (MTB's) arrrugh!! :( 

18 miles RT, quite a roaster as we got off Pikes Peak Ave. on to the Pine St. trail heading north back to the storage unit to tuck away the trikes and do our 1 mile walk back to our 2nd. story apt. Still it was a enjoyable ride as always! :) 

August 22, 2020 A smoky ride to find a safe way to access Colorado Highway 83 N. to Castle Rock, CO.

 We are thinking about doing a overnight or weekend longer distance ride up to Castle Rock, CO. which is 60+ miles north of Colorado Springs and we'd have to use CO. Hwy. 83N. as there are no trails between the cities. I was trying to remember as safe non-traffic way of getting us from our home base up to CO. Hwy. 83 we use to use when we rode bicycles with the Colorado Springs Cycling Club. We have 5 fires burning north and south of us and the day was SMOKEY but hot, 90F + with almost no breeze so we put on the mask's and headed out to pick up the Pikes Peak Greenway north and the Cottonwood Creek Trail up to Vincent St. which we took the bike lane over to Woodman Ave. 

Well we got a surprise as the city built a "MEDIAN" in Vincent and we couldn't turn left so we had to ride down to find a opening to head north to Woodman Ave. LOL, JoLynn was blocked by a truck and didn't see me turn north so she kept going south! I crossed over Woodman and waited for her at a Carl's Jr. and she finally caught up to me. We headed up a back road that dead ends with a sidewalk for walkers/bike riders to access the street up to Academy Blvd. which has a bike path as far as Research Ave. then you have to get on Hwy. 83 N. till you get to Franktown, then turn west on CO. Hwy. 86 into Castle Rock itself. Our plan was to ride the PATH for as far as it went then turn around but as stated it only went a few blocks up to Research Ave. so we found a shady spot by a USA Bank and had our brown bag lunch! :)

After lunch we headed back down the path and the way we came up as we got our goal and re-found the proper and safest way to Hwy. 83.  Back down Cottonwood Creek Trail to the PPGW and headed to the storage unit to tuck away the trikes and walk home. 19 miles RT and the smoke seemed to get thicker, as you really couldn't see the mountains or Pikes Peak at all!!! Sure hope we get some rain at these fires soon and we get our clear, "easter egg" blue sky back!! 

 

August 15, 2020-A ride with a mission for "Bike Colorado Springs" Advocacy Group and the new Museum!

 We took a ride with a bit of a mission, checking out the new bike lanes up and down Sierra Madre St. infront of the new Olympic/Paralympic Museum in down town Colorado Springs for Allen B. from "Bike Colorado Springs" today! We rode down the Cascade St. bike lane over to Colorado Ave. bike lane and turned left to get to Sierra Madre St. checking out the the new Museum and the new entry and parking area on Vermajo St.. 

We then headed over to Tejon St. Bike lane heading west to pick up the Cheyenne blvd. bike lane over to the 8th. St. bike lane to Wal-Mart. Headed over to the Pikes Peak Greenway heading north up to Monument Valley Park for our brown bag lunch stop! Then we headed over the bridge over I-25 to the Pine St. trail and over to the Midland Trail heading west to 21st. St. turned around and headed back to America The Beautiful Park and over the new "connector trail" from the Park back over to Sierra Madre St. and the Cascade bike lane heading north back to our storage unit, tucked in the trikes and walked back to the apt. Hot 85 F+, partly cloudy and still SMOKIE from the forest fires in two places in Colorado. 

August 13th, 2020- Cottonwood Creek Trail and find my lost FLAG ride

 Aug. 13, HOT, 90 F+,  dry, sunny!  We headed north up the Pikes Peak Greenway to ride Cottonwood Creek Trail up to Cottonwood Regional Park, had our brown bag lunch and on the way back we had to LOOK for my FLAG!! It come off for the very first time for some reason so it was a slow ride back, even if it was mostly down hill heading back into down town Colorado Springs. 

Found the flag:) , some nice person picked it up and laid it in the shrub bed this is the one spot we have to get off the sidewalk on Fillmore St. and on the very busy road so we put the E-assist up to level 3 and haul buns 1/4 mile up to Mark Dabling Blvd. to get on the Pikes Peak Greenway North. Looks like the drive way bump with the quick speed increase made the flag fly off! Happy to find it, it's a $65 flag. :) We then headed back to the storage unit, tucked in the trikes and walked our mile back to the apartment! :) 20 miles RT.

August 9, 2020-Reverse Trail Ride

 Just to be a bit different, we took a local trails and bike lane ride in "Reverse",  I got in a 20 mile ride with my wife JoLynn just a mix of local trails and bike lanes. 90F, sunny with just few clouds, stopped for unsweetened iced tea to add to our lowly brown bag lunch. We then headed back to our storage area to tuck the trikes away and go have dinner with our Son, Steven. Nothing special but any ride is FUN!! 

Rides in August 1st. and 6th. A ride with a MISSION!

 Our ride on August 1st. was just to get more time on my GS GT20-RS and get in a ride before the afternoon Monsoon Rains came rumbling in over Pikes Peak. Just a local area ride mixing up the different trails and bike lanes around Colorado Springs.

Our ride on August 6th. was more of a "MISSION" ride, I was asked by JC from Wiz Wheel's, Inc. marketing dept. if I could get some photo's of the GS I won from them actually on a local trail so we headed up the Greenway to head west on Sinton Trail hooking up with the Foothills Trail to take us to the Mesa Rd. Outlook for a couple of  "Photo Op's" pictures. 

Taking the Foothills trail south, you normally run into a junction of the foothills and Mesa trails but found out they are finally taking out the old beat up asphalt and replacing it will fresh laid concrete on the Mesa Trail connector so we had to go out and get on 31st. Street and play with the tourist traffic for 1/2 mile over to Mesa Road to get to the Overlook. With Pikes Peak and the red rock formations of the Garden of the Gods in the background the overlook is a very scenic local spot for a photo op!!

 Well with the mission accomplished, we headed to the Skate board park in Manitou Springs via the Pikes Peak Ave. back street over to Manitou Blvd. and to the park for our usual brown bag lunch and noticed they've added a 9 hole disc golf course to the Park, LOVE Manitou Springs always improving their parks and keeping them CLEAN!! :) Headed back to the storage unit but found out they've got the Creekside and Midland Trails blocked off due to the what seems, "never ending construction" on the area's around the trails, sigh so we used Pikes Peak then got past the blocked area's and took the Midland Trail over to 21st. street, to Walnut St. then over to the Pine St. trail via the bike lanes and back to tuck the trikes away and do our 1 mile walk back to the apt. 18 miles RT, 85F partly cloudy, just a little breeze so it was a good day for a MISSION RIDE!! :)