Happy Trails to You

For those of us in the "older" generation, "Happy Trails to You Until We Meet Again" conjures up the image of Roy Rogers singing.  Happy trails for us now means biking on trails in various places, mostly in Colorado. Colorado is a great place for bicyclists, with trails all over the place.  When a new neighborhood is built, automatically incorporated are cement sidewalks that will accommodate riders and walkers.  

This year we tackled many different trails that were new to us, or sections of the 40-mile Cherry Creek trail that starts in Denver and goes through many suburbs.  No electric bikes for us although we have seen a dramatic increase of those on every single trail that we have ridden this year. 

The Centerra Trail took us over to Equalizer Lake through the city of Loveland. It does have many open areas with no shade, but it links up to the trail at Boyd Lake.

This trail also had a place where you could fix your bike or air up your tires!  Convenient!

The Poudre trail ride from Eastman Park (named after Eastman Kodak because the plant was nearby) took us up hills, open fields and shady paths.

Above is the view from one of the hills.  Below is the top part of the hill that we had to ride up. There are a few lakes in this 5 mile section.

Love this wood pelican carved out of a Cottonwood tree. It had been moved since the last time we rode from about a quarter of a mile away.  It is quite tall so that must have been a bear to move!

Our bike ride to La Porte from Ft. Collins was one of our favorite rides this summer. We started out near New Belgium Brewery which is well known to our beer loving family and friends. 🍺🍺 Lots of shade is provided by the huge Cottonwoods lining the path. 

However, the best part is the huge bridge that crosses over the Cache La Poudre River.  It juts out over the river itself, turning at left or right angles on it's way across.

We always try to do a ride on the Boyd Lake trail because it takes us right through the state park we camp hosted at for 6 years.  This year the lake was very high since there was plenty of runoff from the mountain snowmelt and an abundant amount of spring rain.

We ended up taking the detour through the grassy field.  Let's just say it was a whole lot bumpier than the regular cement path that goes right beside the lake.

Ah, Cherry Creek Trail, we sure do love you!  We have ridden on different portions at least 15 times this summer.  There are many parks and trailheads that we can start at, making this an easy trail to access. This year the grasshoppers were out in force but at least we didn't have to dodge them.  Coyote scat and goose poop is an entirely different story.  LOL😂

One section in the town of Parker took us right past some cute alpacas.

 

Another portion of the Cherry Creek trail was one that we had never ridden before.  Our son-in-law, Ken suggested this since he is avid biker and knows the paths like the back of his hand.  It took us south from Parker towards Franktown.  The only thing that I didn't care for was the snake sign.....I hate snakes!

There were a lot of Brown Eye Susans along the first part of our ride after starting out at Cobblestone Ranch Park.  Some of the flowers were taller than Don.

For a change, Don took a picture of me.  Usually I'm the one taking the pics, but today I left my camera back at Ken and Lisa's.

Due to major flooding in Ft. Collins this summer, a portion the Spring Creek trail was closed off.   Other portions required us to ride either beside the flowing creek or right through the standing water.

No fenders on the bikes meant we had to go through really SLOW to avoid getting muddy water splashed all over our backs. At least we have learned from experience.

Riding the Mason trail was a last-minute decision after seeing the detour sign on the Spring Creek Trail.  We were already near the downtown portion of Ft. Collins, so we both agreed to go in a different direction. It took us past many of the Colorado State University buildings and across quite a few railroad tracks.