My wife JoLynn and I decided to ride a trail that we've never been on here in Colorado Springs, CO. The Cottonwood Trail is at the northend of town and we don't hardly get up that way. There's no connector trails from the south up that far so we loaded the trikes in the van and headed for the recreation center/YMCA at Cottonwood Park. LOL, we had "no idea" where the trail started so we finally found it behind several baseball diamonds. Heading north the trail ends when the concrete turns into a "dirt single track" so we rode up to the spot and turned the trikes to head south. At the moment the south trail ends just before Academy Blvd., they are building a new bridge and the trail will go underneath it and will go all the way to the Pikes Peak Greenway, close to downtown C. Springs!! That will make it about a 25 mile ride so we will revisit the trail when it's completed. We rode down to south stopping point and had a cliff bar and shared a bag of our favorite "Jelly Belly Sport Beans", then headed back to the park and the van. BTW, part of the trail is along a "disc golf course" so you do have to watch for flying disc's! Sunny, 80F, light breeze a bit of MUD we had to moto-cross over. 8.5 miles RT, 80F, Sunny, light breeze and the rain held off till we got home! It was FUN getting to ride a new trail! :)

The end of the trail, heading NORTH out of Cottonwood Park

The MUD, was to the right, 20ft. long 12ft. wide and 3 inches deep!!

The current end of the trail, SOUTH,  just before the new Academy Blvd. bridge and trail underpass in progress!

Watch out for Flying Disc's!! :O

The last of the Summer "Southeast Area Bike Fest's"

There have been 3 Southeast Area Bike Fest's here in Colorado Springs, CO. since May and today was the last one for the summer of 2018. The first one we just showed up to check it out and found out it was run by a friend, Allen B. and LOL, he "drafted us" into help with the "Community Ride" for the event by being "Sweep Riders".  A Sweep Rider is the last rider in the group and makes sure all the riders get to the ride destination and back to the event area, safely!  We had a smaller group this time but they were a fun group, that included a little 4 year old girl we'd just got her first bike on Tuesday! She rode a little shakey but did great making the 3 mile RT on the Sand Creek Trail!!  We stopped at Wildflower Park and Allen gave out Popsicles and cold water as it was in the 90F's temp wise!! We even had two twin brothers on "scooters", do the whole 3 miles while Mom and Dad rode bikes with "trailers", incase they didn't make it!  We don't use the van for these rides, we ride from the storage unit to the Event and then back home, adding the 3 mile ride it comes out to about 13 miles.  It's a small way we give back to the local community! (Event Sponsors: Bike Colorado Springs/Kids On Bikes/Armed Forces YMCA/Girl Scouts/Pike Bike Share of Colorado Springs)

The Community Ride Group at Wildflower Park, I'm in the "red jersey" and JoLynn is holding up the water bottle! :)

A two trail ride

We wanted to start at America The Beautiful Park in down town Co. Springs but they were having Pride fest and wanted to charge $10 for what's usually FREE parking, we blew that pop stand and parked at the Bike Plaza/Fontanaireo Trail head of the Legacy Loop for FREE! :). They haven't made the future concrete trail from the trail head to the popcycle bridge yet so we took the slightly rocky dirt trail to the bridge and headed up the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail. We stopped at Criterium Bicycles for water and a break, shared a bar and a bag of jelly belly "sport beans" and headed up the Greenway to the start of the Cottonwood Trail which only goes for a couple of miles then the tunnel is "blocked off" till they finish the new bridge at Academy Blvd. and they make the "trail" go underneath it, it will add a lot of miles heading EAST when it completed!! :). We picked up the Vincent St. Bike Lane, Nevada Ave. Trail back to the new shopping center and got back on the PP Greenway Trail and headed back to the van. 13 miles RT, 90F+ with a nice breeze. Packed up the trikes and headed to Wendy's for lunch! :)