Pike's Peak Greenway

Quick Ride Summary: 26.53 miles round trip. Elevation change 400 feet each direction. Weather sunny, temp. mid 60's, wind 6-8mph from the south. Trail surface included beautiful new concrete, just plain dirt, and everything in between. Website for the Pike's Peak Greenway may be accessed by clicking HERE.

Pictures may be double-clicked to see larger copies.

Started for Colorado Springs at 7:30a.m. Objective is to learn the core of the trail for later exploration of connecting trails (and, of course, to have a good time). I needed a trail map so I started at Criterium Bicycles. They not only have most everything you need they are also a trail head. They sold me a map and I unloaded the trike and used them as my trail head.

I asked the young man helping me with the map, Which way is uphill and which way is downhill. He said, "I don't know. It's pretty much flat." I didn't know it then, but one should not ask someone in such good physical condition which way is uphill because he is so strong that he never noticed that one way might be somewhat more difficult than the other. Well, I later noticed...

9:30a.m.: I headed south on the trail and found that I was coasting a lot. The waterway next to the trail, Monument Creek, was racing in the same direction I was going. I like to do the uphill part of the ride first but this is obviously going to be the exception. The first mile or so the trail was a poorly maintained asphalt, but that turned to concrete and things were better. As you can see from the first picture, the Trail's namesake, Pike's Peak, is visible on this part of the trail.




The ride through the "Springs" proper included parks every few miles and lots of connecting trails. The signage on the trail could be better. It was often difficult to tell which way to go. The trail crosses the creek many times on excellent bridges and twice on bridges that are reminiscent of army pontoon bridges.

Many areas of the trail are under construction. The sections that have recently been paved give an idea of how nice the trail will be when fully completed. They are wide and smooth. I took no pictures of the construction but did of the completed new sections.

At about mile 8, I entered a section that was rutted dirt. It was barely passable. But I managed and took this picture which I call "Dirt, but with amenities". The viewing area on the left had pictures of the wildlife one might expect to see in the wetlands below, but the real view was of the I-25 freeway about 80 yards away. I thought they should have added pictures of semi's and motor homes too.






Next came crushed gravel, then a dirt road, with section of new paved trail interspersed. With three wheels I get significantly more tire resistance with unpaved trails than the two-wheelers do, so I probably notice the surface more than others.






You can imagine what this section of trail is going to look like when everything has fully leafed out.


When I came to this section of the trail, just south of the El Pomar Youth Sports Park, I wondered who picked up all those rocks. I decided this was the end of the ride south and turned around and headed back. In about 200 yards I came to a small sign for north bound traffic that said "Welcome to Colorado Springs".







I stopped at a small. picnic area on the way back and had lunch. Yum! The ride was uneventful, and quite enjoyable. I will return to do more of the trail and some of the side trails.

Glenwood Canyon

On April 23, 2009, I arose at the crack of dawn, packed my trike and gear and headed for Glenwood Springs. Glenwood Springs is 165 miles west of Denver on Highway I70. It is at the western end of Glenwood Canyon, one of the scenic wonders of Colorado and the site of the most expensive 20 miles of Interstate highway in the nation. For 16 miles of that Interstate they tacked on a bike path. Both the Freeway and the bike path cling to the northern bank of the mighty Colorado River. The railroad claims the other bank.

I arrived in Glenwood Springs at about 10:00 a.m. and found a parking space. (It is easer to find parking in New York than Glenwood Springs). I mounted up and headed out.

The first 1.5 miles of the bike path are on a road surface directly adjacent to the break-down lane of the freeway and is about the ugliest thing you can imagine. Then the freeway enters a tunnel and the bike path crosses over the freeway and drops into the canyon to follow the river.

The very best parts of the ride turned out to be when the road enters a tunnel and the bike path and river go off on their own. All of the sudden it is quiet and stunningly beautiful.

The river is running almost full from the spring runoff.

For the next mile or so the trail follows a road through a very rare residential area on the banks of the river. I noticed that one was for sale. (I couldn't help but dream a little)

Now going through miles four and five I find that the trail is much steeper than portrayed in the Trail documentation. I just came down an 8% grade. On the way back there is no way that I or my motor can pull that hill. I will have to walk it. The scenery continues to be spectacular.

Going from west to east through the canyon there is a rest stop every few mile so that drivers can stop and admire the view. The bike path rises up to each of these.

On one hand it is nice because there are rest rooms, water and shelter. On the other hand they are full of people and a distraction from the river.

Each of the rest stops has a name (Grizzly Creek, Hanging Lake, etc, except for the first one, which is called No Name.

When the path is right next to, or attached to, the freeway it is very noisy with the traffic on one side and sometimes the roar of the river on the other. Much of the time, the river side of the bike path has no railing and with my vertigo this is a bit of a problem for me.

Yes, that is the roadway above my head. When you see white water it means that the river is running very fast and it means steeper uphill pulls.

The places that rent bikes in Glenwood Springs also offer a shuttle service to take you and your rental bike to the eastern end of the trail so that your experience of riding the trail is mostly downhill.

I had lunch at the Hanging Lake rest stop (about mile 11 out of 16) and grab a 30 minute recharge on the bikes battery (a full recharge takes 5 to 6 hours). I found an outlet in the mens room (evidently provided for electric shavers) and so I wheeled the trike into the restroom and parked it while I had lunch. Since I'm sitting outside with a bike helmet et al, everyone who went into the restroom knew it was mine and had to stop and visit.

Before lunch I was thinking the elevation gain was too much and I would have to turn back soon. But, a little food and rest, and a talk with myself about driving 165 miles to do "a part" of the trail (I don't think so).

You don't see the usual GPS map and elevation map in this trail blog because deep in the canyon one rarely gets GPS or Cell coverage.

Anyway, I soldiered on and with the help of a very brisk tail wind, made it to the eastern trail head. At this point the trail had come out of the deep canyon and everything looked much more arid and much less spectacular. I visited with some other cyclists and then started back because huge thunder storm clouds were gathering over the canyon.

Coming back you would think it would be a piece of cake, what with being downhill and all. But now I was dealing with 20 to 30 mph headwinds being generated by the thunder clouds, with gusts to 40 and 50 mph. Going downhill and pedaling like hell the wind would still bring me to a standstill. Well that is what the motor is for and I used it some to counteract the wind, but felt I had to save most of it for that god-awful hill at the No Name rest stop. (I was glad I did! At the No Name hill I used the motor to move the trike up the hill while I walked alongside).

On the way back I was in good company with some folks enjoying the bounty of the Colorado River.

I arrived back at the car, none the worse for wear. I loaded up and headed for Denver. The return trip was uneventful.

I wouldn't want to do this every day, but wouldn't have missed it for the world. I will do it again this summer.

Hilary

Early Spring Rides

Last week I rode the following trails:

Cherry Creek up to the intersection with the Highline Canal and back 20.5 miles
Poudre River Trail out of Greeley, CO. To the end and back for 41 miles.
Grange Hall Creek from home to the Platte River and Back 16.5 miles

All of these trail deserve a write-up but I think I will wait for more foliage and ride them again. It will make for better riding, better pictures and a more interesting description.

Planning is well underway for scouting future trail rides. I'm looking at the Rio Grande Trail out of Aspen, the Glenwood Canyon Trail out of Glenwood Springs, and the Mineral Belt Trail around Leadville, Co.

As soon as it stops snowing and warms up a bit at those altitudes, I will visit each site and plan rides if I think I can deal with both the altitude and the elevation changes on the trails. I will undoubtedly have to be in pretty good shape so I will be doing more training rides in the next month or so.