Pedal to Parks & Historic Places ~ Shooks Run

Jo and I went on a excellent ride with the folks from "Bike Colorado Springs", our citywide advocacy group. This was a Pedal the Parks ride where we stopped at city parts and historic places along one of the local Rail Trail, called Shooks Run. We stopped a several parks and even have a local History Professor from Colorado College give us information on the history of the parks or places along the trail. It was a partly cloudy day with warmer temps, (been gray and raining all week)! It was a small group of about 25 riders and they even supplied treats and drinks, my wife and I had a great time although we had to leave a little early as the dark clouds came in and we had 10 miles of limestone trail to ride to get home! ENJOYED!

Pikes Peak Greenway Trail repairs done!

We just decided to see how far we could get up the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail to see how the repairs of 4 sections were coming along. It's not real easy to get to from Northern Security, CO. We have to take a dead end road (in bad shape), then haul our bikes over a 3-4 ft. rock mound and railroad tracks, then ride a even rougher road to CO. Hwy. 85/87 N. Head up the busy highway to Las Vegas St. and ride to the new concrete connecter to the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail. heading north, we see the work they have done "rebuilding" 4 sections of the trail that were flooded out by Fountain Creek flooding back in late 2015. You could still ride it but some sections were very thin and waiting to fall into the creek!!!

The PPGW Trail is a combo of dirt/crushed limestone and concrete with a few beat up wooden bridges. It does have one kinda cool "low bridge" that is just barely above the creek top, it's concrete and if the creek floods the water just goes over the top! We didn't know if we could get all the way into Colorado Springs, (at America The Beautiful Park, downtown). Luckily we got to make it all the way, took a restroom break and headed back, stopped at a great little pastry/sandwich shop and had a great ham/swiss on a croissant with some really good, Veggie Chips, (no we are not health food fanatics, they were good!). Back on the PPGW trail, we headed back the say way. Back over the railroad tracks and home. A round trip of 15 miles on a "finally" sunny, semi-hot day, very enjoyable! :)

Changes

Well we've moved south of Colorado Springs to the township of "Security", it's a slower paced area but it is a bit harder to get to the "rail trails" in the Springs we love to ride. The only "non-super busy" bike trail into the city is under construction. So we've been "riding around Security and Widefield back roads and streets for a month. Hope to get back to the rail trails soon, they say the construction is suppose to be finished by the middle of August and the new section of the Midland Trail which we love to ride from Colorado Springs to Manitou Springs should be finished by the end of August so Sept. will be a FUN month to ride again!! :)  Sorry no pictures, LOL, I'm getting really lazy about carrying the digital camera. Hope you've gotten in some great rides!