Riding along the Colorado

Since we carry along our bikes, we're always searching for nice places to ride while we travel, preferably ones that are fairly flat.  We are definitely not mountain bikers.  With the help from a guy at the local REI store, we found a great biking/hiking trail in Grand Junction.

This portion of the trail heads west towards Fruit, and is quite new.  According to the website, the trail is supposed to end up at the Fruita Visitor Center.  We almost had the trail completely to ourselves: we met only one lonely jogger along the way.  We are used to the trails in Loveland and Ft. Collins, awash with bikers, joggers, walkers and plenty of canines.

As we followed the path along the Colorado River and various ponds, it provided great views of the mesas to the east.

Don was ahead of me as he rode into the Walter Walker Wildlife Loop.  Wildlife Loop?  We hadn't even seen a bird or a rabbit.  Was all the wildlife in hiding or at some kind of conference?

However, as we rode into the area that was thick with bushes and trees, we both heard a noise..... and we had no idea of what it was at first.  I looked to my left and about 10 feet from me was the mother deer.  Off she bounded into the open area, her little fawn in front of her. I turned around my bike, knowing which way she was headed,  and was lucky to get a photo of both of them.

The clouds were building up, and it was so windy that we had to pedal going downhill!

All in all, we got in a nice ride that afternoon.  Then it was time for us to us to do some grocery shopping and make dinner.  At least we worked off some calories and got our daily dose of sunshine.