Barr Lake State Park, Brighton, CO

Yesterday was my birthday and I was celebrating it downtown Denver. Since I wasn’t riding my motorcycle this weekend, I decided to bring my mountain bike hoping to check out Barr Lake State Park, which according to the website, has some easy trails. I keep saying I’m going to bike more, but for whatever reason it just doesn’t happen often enough.

Barr Lake

The 8.8 miles around the lake consisted of dirt, gravel and single track

The town of Brighton in the distance

So today Dalton and I went riding our bicycles. The 8.8 trail was perfect for someone that doesn’t ride very often. And the trail was pretty much empty. Unfortunately Dalton got a tire puncture early on. I rode the entire trail without any issues, but when I unloaded my bike from the car and rolled it in to the garage I noticed that the front and back tires were both totally flat, both tires had one goat heads stuck in the tire.

Fossil Creek Reservoir: No bikes allowed!

No bicycles? What? I’ve been living in Fort Collins now 8 months. One thing I know is that Fort Collins prides itself on being very bicycle friendly. Many of the roads have a bicycle lane and bicycle paths cross the town in every direction. Honestly, I have not been anywhere yet where bicycles were not allowed. Even in the downtown area, there are bicycles racks everywhere to encourage riding.

Since my return from the New Mexico trip, I haven’t really done anything blog-worthy. I needed a week or so to catch up. And it was easy to do that too since it had rained a bit last weekend.

Since my return I had been itching to get out on my bicycle and do some exploring. The grass was finally green, the trees had leaves and there were flowers everywhere.

Today was a beautiful day with temps in the high 70’s. I headed south hoping to take a spin through the Fossil Creek Reservoir Open Space. I discovered that place the day I picked up my ST3 from the dealer, but had never returned to check it out some more. I did remember a nice dirt trail at the park and one trail heading into the park.



Carpenter Road curves around this lake or Reservoir

From my house I took off the Fossil Creek Trail and soon I was riding on the street in the bicycle lane. Then the bicycle lane ended and I was on the shoulder. Then the shoulder shrank and I literally only had a foot of pavement to ride on. I didn’t enjoy riding that close to traffic, even though Colorado just passed a law recently that makes vehicles give cyclists some space on the road.



The dirt trail starts at mile marker #98 on Carpenter Road




The trail just "starts" quite a ways from the road too



The trail is made of very fine rocks



Looking east from the trail

I kept looking for this “trail” that I had seen before but didn’t see anything for a long time. Then, all the sudden it just started, quite a bit away form the road too. I had to cross the road and walk through some grass to get to the trail. Why did the trail start here? Well, if you need to know, the trail starts at mile marker # 98 on Carpenter Road.



The trail was very soft gravel, I rode it all the way to Fossil Creek Reservoir. The last time I was here the building wasn’t open, today it was so I went to check out the facilities - meaning - bathroom. Then I got on the bike and came to a complete stop in disbelief. I was looking at this sign that said no bikes. No bikes?



Fossil Creek Reservoir Open Space has really nice bathrooms



No bikes - no fun



Back on the trail heading west



A field of dandelions



My 20 mile route today

I took off, headed out of the open space and took the trail back to where it ended at mile marker #98. The whole time I rode away from the park I kept thinking something. There was no one at the Fossil Creek Reservoir the first time I was there with my motorcycle. And even today, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, there was no one there. No one on this trail either. I wonder how many people would be able to enjoy this open space if bicycles were allowed. Either way, I had a nice long ride and saw quite a bit of the neighborhood.

Fort Collins Bicycle Trails: West Poudre Trail

The snow and chill have finally been replaced by sunshine and warmth. It seems like it's been forever since I did something of significance outside. The last snow fall we got wasn't even good snow, it was wet and not much of it. After a few Winter months of mild and beautiful sunny weather, the last two weeks were sort of depressing. But today was finally going to be a warm day, in the mid 60’s.

Just like I did a few months ago when I started to ride the bicycle again, Mike had also started with some short rides -today he wanted to take a longer ride. The plan was to ride North, then East then West before turning around and riding home. The Fossil Creek Trail to Mason Trail to Spring Creek Trail. Then ride west on the Poudre Trail since I have ridden east before but never west.



Old bridge along the Poudre Trail

The plan was to ride back home the same way, but when Mike saw that nice twisty dirt short cut to the Power Trail from the Spring Creek Trail, we decided to take the Power Trail home, even though the trail ended just a bit north east of home. From there we would have to ride streets to get home, which is not a problem here in Fort Collins since most streets have a bicycle lane. I even brought the Fort Collins bicycle map with me, so I knew which streets had a bicycle lane. I could have used the GPS though for navigation. I think it‘s time to mount the Garmin Quest on to the bicycle.



Looks like this bridge was used to carry water across the Poudre River



Photoshoped to add some more color



Getting back to the Poudre Trail

We didn’t ride very far on the Poudre Trail heading west. Just up to some remnant of a bridge that might have carried water over the Poudre River in the past. The paved surface on the Poudre Trail seems to be deteriorating and in need of fixing. Riding it is not as fun as the other trails which have a nice smooth surface. The Poudre Trail has lots of large cracks in the pavement, I can feel those even on a mountain bike. I’m guessing the Poudre Trail is the oldest of the bicycle trails in Fort Collins.



Mike on the twisty short cut from the Spring Creek Trail to the Power Trail



No action shots of me, just a poser shot

After checking out the bridge on the Poudre Trail we turned around and took the Spring Creek Trail to the Power Trail. I really like the Power Trail, there is a paved path that runs next to a dirt path. I chose to ride the dirt path as we headed South but after about two miles the dirt path started to get smaller and more beat up and finally it disappeared all together. The Power Trail has some smaller hills, where the other trails seem to be mostly flat. Our ride on the “trails” ended at a barricade. Fort Collins plans to continue extending the Power Trail further south but with the economy right now, it looks like the construction has stopped here and on the other trails. After 15 miles we were home.

Fort Collins: Spring Canyon Community Park

Today Mike and I loaded our bicycles in to the car and headed to the Pineridge Natural Area in Fort Collins to ride some of the easy dirt trails on our mountain bikes but the dirt trails were closed because they still very wet and muddy. So after we rode the paved trails around Spring Canyon Community Park, which is located just east of Pineridge Natural Area, we found a dirt trail on the north side of the park that headed east. The trail didn't stay dry for long, but it met up with a paved trail that took up to the Spring Creek Trail.



A dry trail at Spring Canyon Community Park turns slushy and slick, we stayed on pavement for the rest of the day



Mike heading east out of the Spring Canyon Community Park



Looking west toward Pineridge Natural Area from Spring Canyon Community Park

It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the low 50’s. There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. I have not been on the Spring Creek Trail this far west yet.



Taking a break on Spring Creek Trail



Mike on Spring Creek Trail



Back at Spring Canyon Community Park



Cool wood sculptures at Spring Canyon Community Park



That's a big kitty cat



Where do you think he's going with that?

We rode the Spring Creek Trail through the Ross Natural Area, Roland Moore Park and Fischer Natural Area. The actual Spring Creek Trail continues east, this section of the trail that we were on through the Fischer Natural Area dead ended at Stuart Street. We turned around and headed back the way we came, back to Spring Canyon Community Park and the parking lot. We rode about 7 - 8 miles today.



We parked the car at Spring Canyon Community Park and rode the Spring Creek Trail east (high-lighted section) about 7 miles round trip

Bicycle, bicycle…all I want to ride

I felt amazingly good today for having climbed a 13er yesterday. The weather was warm so I had to get out and do something.










Some “unofficial” single tracks near the house

The Goatheads Are Out To Get Me!

Today was warm enough for shorts, 75 degrees and sunny, but windy also. Too windy to ride the motorcycle, although I really wanted to take the 954RR for a spin. With wind gusts up to 30+ mph I decided to take my MTB out for another ride around town. The wind doesn’t bother me on the bicycle riding in town as much as on the motorcycle riding in the open spaces and the foothills.



Enjoying the warm weather (I'm faking my smile here since I already know "what" has happened)

I made it about 3 miles from the house when I realized something was wrong. I just had this same sensation a few months ago so I was familiar with it. I got off the bike the check my suspicions.

Yep, my front tire was loosing air. Just a month ago, February 3rd to be exact, my bike became rideable again after receiving a goathead puncture to the rear tire in late December. I got my inner tube replaced with a puncture-resistant tube so naturally today I had another goathead stuck - this time in my front tire.



A goathed puncture in my front tire

I knew this would happen sooner or later but I was hoping for later. I still hadn’t figured out if I should go with the slimed tubes or those plastic or kevlar insert that go in between the tire and the tube. Either way my plan was replace the front tube, since the tubes that came with my bike were too thin for this goathead infested terrain.



I pulled the nasty goathead out and watched my tire go flat

I didn’t remove the goathead from my tire and made it home with some air still in the inner tube. Once I took the goathead out, the inner tube and tire went flat in minutes. It was nice to ride in the warm summer-like air , even if it was just for 6 miles or so.

Fort Collins Bicycle Trails: Poudre & Powerline

Not all days in Colorado and beautiful and sunny. I have to admit that on those not so beautiful days I usually stay home, catch up on blogging, or do stuff inside the house. But I’ve been trying to get in to riding my bicycle more so I figured today was a good day for that. The temperature was in the low 60’s but since it was cloudy, I couldn’t feel any warmth from above like on those days when it’s bright and sunny.



Cool kitty cat art along the Mason Trail



A duck pond along Spring Creek Trail



Poudre Trail and Cache la Poudre River (looking west)

I had no real plans as I took off from the house and rode down my side street to meet up with the Fossil Creek Trail that would take me to the Mason Trail heading north in to Fort Collins which took me to the Spring Creek Trail.



I took a nice short cut through the Prospect Ponds Natural Area



The dirt trail through Prospect Ponds Natural Area





Above pictures are of Prospect Ponds Natural Area



The water treatment facility across from Prospect Ponds Natural Area

This time I made a right and headed east after a while I arrived at the Poudre Trail. I decided to continue heading east and basically ride to the end of the Poudre Trail which ended on the far northeast side of Fort Collins.



A stop at the Poudre River



The dirt road that goes past the water treatment facility

The Poudre Trail ended at the Fort Collins water treatment facility. I went a bit further thought since there was a dirt road to ride on and I was curious where it went but then the pavement started again so I turned around and headed back taking a break at the Colorado State University Environmental Learning Center. There was a cool hanging bridge here. Since bikes were not allowed at the Environmental Learning Center and the trails I checked out the squeaky bridge and continued back on the Poudre Trail that took me back to Spring Creek Trail.



The Poudre Trail passes by the Colorado State University Environmental Learning Center



No bikes allowed beyond this sign at the Colorado State University Environmental Learning Center



I really like this bridge



This bridge hangs above the Poudre River

When I was heading the other way earlier in the day I saw a curious curvy path leading off to the side going up a slight hill, I decided to investigate this path. It turned out this was a short cut of some sorts to the other bicycle trail called the Power Trail. The Power trail runs along the power lines heading south. This trail was cool, there was a paved trail running adjacent to a dirt trail, being on a mountain bike I chose to ride in the dirt.



Back on the Spring Creek Trail, the short cut to the Power Trail starts here at this rail road underpass



Short cut to the Power Trail



The dirt and paved paths on the Power Trail



Back on the short cut from the Power Trail to the Spring Creek Trail



The short cut again, I really like this short cut

I was getting tired now so I only rode the Power Trail to the next intersection, then turned around and headed back to Spring Creek Trail, back to Mason Trail , back to Fossil Creek Trail and finally home. My legs felt like I worked them out pretty good today so I decided to go to my mapping software and see how far I went - 20 miles. That’s pretty good and I go to see more of Fort Collins too.



Poudre Trail and Power Trail signs