August 15th. Yes, dear readers I am behind my time when it comes to updating this blog! It's been a very busy couple of weeks with out-of-town visitors, med appointments, etc. so here is the scoop!
August 3- Homestead Trail Ride. We decided to ride a trail that isn't easy due to the POOR surface conditions and non-easy trail access. The Homestead Trail is a north/south trail that is really just "pieces of trail". Starting in North Penrose Park, which itself isn't easy to access you pick up a very beat up asphalt trail heading south to Oro Blanco, where it becomes not quite wide enough concrete heading north. Its only real feature is an excellent ridge view of a lot of the northeast side of Colorado Springs.
Being on recumbent trikes we can only ride it as far as the gravel "overview" area, from there it heads, west down a slick, gravel, bumpy off camber hill before it turns north again and ends at High Chapparral Point. From there is a "single track and back street" find your way to a rough concrete and asphalt section that hooks into the Cottonwood Creek Trail. As stated, we only ride to the "gravel overlook". Someday it will be one of the most scenic trails in Colorado Springs and one of the longest, IF it ever gets completed!
August 4- Food/Household supplies and Lunch Ride. Just a Food and Household supplies ride to the Walmart Market on Union and then Lunch after putting away the food/supplies.
August 7- Sand Creek and Pikes Peak Greenway (Gravel Section). Been awhile since we rode the Sand Creek Trail and the "gravel" section of the Pikes Peak Greenway before Nevada Ave in Co Springs. Starting out on the Rock Island turning on the Homestead Trail South to Galley Rd. From there, it's all sidewalks and back streets to pick up the Sand Creek Trail off of the Airport Rd. bike lane. Rode the Sand Creek to the hook up with the PP Greenway heading west over to Monument Valley Park and home!
August 8- Heading to Manitou Springs on the Midland Trail but it was "Blocked Off" at 31st. Street! Headed down the west Pikes Peak Greenway from the apartment and picked up the Mesa Greenway over to the Midland Trail to ride to Manitou Springs but it was blocked off by Community Service Police and caution tape!!! Headed over to the Starbuck's at Colorado Ave and 31st Street for lunch. Heading back, it was still blocked off, so we headed back to downtown and home.
August 11- Offroad Ride to "Ice Lake" on the Santa Fe Regional Trail and USAF Academy grounds. This USAFA is a military installation, but they usually let riders use the South TRAIL Gate where the Santa Fe Regional Trail runs through. Sadly, it was CLOSED due to a high alert status all winter and up to a week ago. Since we hadn't been up there in a year, we headed up the PP Greenway, which turns into the Santa Fe Regional Trail just after Woodmen Road. It's all GRAVEL and some of it quite loose and deeper so it was kinda a test of the E-assist systems to see if it made it any easier to use our trike on gravely trails!
Made it to the south trail gate and squeezed thru, LOL, it was a much more enjoyable ride using e-assist that without it!! The trail will take you to Monument and Palmer Lake but without e-assist to help you "POWER" through to deeper lose gravel sections it's not an easy ride for sure!! Made it to Ice Lake and found some new picnic table, one the shade even and sat down to our brown bag special lunch at the lakeside! :) It was fun to get back up here and who knows, maybe now that we have e-assist, we might even try the "Glamping Campground" in Monument again sometime!! Headed home from there, a good ride!
August 13- T-Gap, Austin Bluffs, Shooks Run and Mesa Greenway Ride. Back to the normal trail rides so we decided to make a big Loop Trail out of several trails. It was HOT, 90F+ and sadly, smokey from Colorado and Utah forest fire smoke being blown by the wind into Colorado Springs! :( LOL, the reason we ended up at Shooks Run Trail is that I "BLEW BY" the right fork turn to take us up to the Starbuck's and Flintridge and Academy, so we headed to the Good Neighbors Meeting House on Shooks Run Trail to get Iced tea and eat the brown bag lunch! DUH! From there picked up the Pikes Peak Ave bike lane to get to the Mesa Greenway to the PP Greenway and back to the apartment!
That's it for now folks, more August rides coming up soon, out of town recumbent riders will be joining us as we sadly, ride towards THE END of SUMMER! :(
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