Riding the Mineral Belt Trail, Leadville, CO.

The Mineral Belt Trail surrounds the town of Leadville, CO. at an altitude of 10,000 ft. It's 12 miles round trip. We chose to ride the trail, "clockwise", to get most of the "incline" done first. The town and trail is surrounded by the Collegiate Peak Mountain Range, with many peaks over 14,000ft. The trail is nicely paved, thru forest of pine and aspen, many starting to turn color for fall! It twists and turns up the grade, then goes into a fast, long downhill section which turns into a series of sharp S-shaped turns heading back into the town of Leadville!! There are lots of info-boards about the long Gold and Silver mining history of the area, with many "on trail" displays. The trail is 10,606 ft. at it's summit, it was sunny, 63F, with a nice breeze just a GREAT day to be out riding! 

Rode the Cherry Creek Trail, Denver, CO.

We loaded up the van and headed 1hr. and 6 min. north to Parker, CO. and the McCabe Meadows Trailhead of the Cherry Creek Trail. It's a older urban/open space, concrete trail that goes north to down town Denver, CO. We rode to Cherry Creek State Park and Reservoir, which was our planned turn around point for this ride. It's a little tight as it's the older 8 ft. wide trail but in very good shape, lot's of restrooms, ect. along the trail. Nice wooded area's mixed with urban areas, It was a perfect day, partly cloudy, 80F+, and a slight cooling breeze!!!  total miles: 26.6 RT. It was a easy ride but we did have to turn back 1 mile from the reservoir as a part of the trail was getting maintenance . Headed back to the van and drove back to Colorado Springs. A very enjoyable RIDE!

A "pieces" of trails ride

On Sunday, August 26th., we decided to do a ride that used "pieces" of several local urban or rail trails around the Colorado Springs area. We started at the new Legacy Loop/Fontinero Trailhead, where we parked the van and unloaded the trikes. Headed south down the "west side" of the Pikes Peak Greenway trail to Monument Valley Park, then we took the "Over I-25 Trail Bridge" to a urban trail (which as far as I know, has NO NAME), heading south to hook up to on street Bike Lanes over to pick up the Midland Trail heading west. Rode the Midland Trail up to 28th. Street, to Pikes Peak Ave. and stopped at a Wendy's for lunch., from there we headed to the 31st. Street Bike Lane heading up the Pleasant Valley area to the "back way" into the Garden of the Gods Park. There we turned around and headed back to the van. Sunny, 90F with a decent breeze. It's pieces of the same old trails, done different, had a great time and put in 15 miles RT.! :)

JoLynn heading up the "Over I-25 Trail Bridge", a very steep incline of "3 sections" to the top of the Bridge!

Top of the Bridge, heading for the steep "downhill" sections.

A view of  I-25 through the holes in the safety fence!

The No Name Path, heading south from the bridge.

A slightly faded picture of Pikes Peak from the Midland Trail.

End of the 31st. Bike Lane, it's the back way into the Garden of the Gods Park, which has a "deep sand/gravel trail" but soon will be "concrete" to hook up to the GoG Entryway Road. The Tiny Chapel is a "one room" church on the Rockledge Ranch Section of the GoG Park.

Julie Penrose Fountain with the water falling into the wadding pool at the bottom for the kids at America The Beautiful Park, at the trail junction of the Pikes Peak Greenway and the Midland Trail, down town Colorado Springs, CO.