June 2, 2014

6/2/14 - Aurora to Castle Rock - 27 miles

Started a 2-3 week bike ride within the state of Colorado today. This ride is quite different than my previous two rides (2012 cross-country and 2013 "Tour of the Leaves" from Minneapolis to Bar Harbor). Mostly because I had a hard time discerning a route. I chose Colorado for two reasons. First, I did not want to ride across the Southern Tier because of the summer heat and/or long flat stretches of limited scenery. Second, I had originally planned to ride through Colorado in 2012 as part of the cross-country ride, but altered that plan due to the wild fires as I approached from Wyoming, and because I met the guys from Arizona and started riding with them to South Dakota. So, I wanted to see the scenery from a biking perspective. I also have a number of friends who live in Colorado and thought it would be fun if the opportunity arose to see them during the ride. 

The selection of a route ultimately hinged on my riding companion for this trip. LaDonna is a friend from Georgia that I met almost 40 years ago at a basketball camp in South Carolina where I grew up. We were good friends our senior year in high school, then I left for Texas to play basketball for Jody Conradt. As life often happens, we eventually lost contact for over 35 years until I received an email during the 2012 cross-country ride via the Truth Be Told website from Ladonna. Apparently she had stumbled on my bike ride journal and was following along. Since that time, we have re-connected and she indicated that she would be interested in learning more about bike touring. So, I told her I would do a ride with her. This Colorado ride is the result. The choice of a route was difficult because, although LaDonna is in good general physical condition (she hiked the 500 mile El Camino Santiago across Spain last summer), she has never done much bike riding and certainly not in mountains. To make a long story short, my friend Dawne suggested we start from her home in Aurora near Denver and ride along the Front Range that parallels the mountains. That way, we could avoid some of the more steep mountain inclines and still enjoy the scenery. 

So, we started the ride on Monday from Aurora headed south towards Colorado Springs, then Pueblo. We have to play it somewhat by ear because the route is not great for biking and requires some flexibility on our part. Also, LaDonna is still getting used to the whole biking thing and how she adjusts will determine in some part where the route eventually takes us. 

We left Dawne's at approximately 11:30 am and started on a bike trail called the Cherry Creek Greenbelt Trail. This was a very poorly marked trail, but gave us a chance to get our biking legs under us and address the initial biking issues that always arise the first day or two as you are settling in. I especially wanted to start off the highway if possible to give LaDonna a chance to settle in on her bike. The weather was perfect - low 80's and clear blue skies with very little wind. The trail ran alongside grassy meadows, and occasionally alongside a stream where happy dogs frolicked with their owners. Snow-capped mountains framed the distant horizon.  The perfect way to start the ride. 

Although the Cherry Creek Trail supposedly runs all the way to Frankton - approximately 20 miles south - I was unable to locate any really good map information from the nearby bike shops and the people at the shops did not seem too familiar with the trail, and most had ridden on Highway 63. So, I decided to opt for Highway 63 after approximately  5 miles. The shoulder was fine for most of the ride, but the traffic was heavier than I would have preferred. Still, we biked along with little problem and only an occasional headwind or two for brief moments. At Frankton, we headed east the final 7 miles to Castle Rock, our destination for the night. This was a lovely ride through rolling hills and a couple of very challenging winding inclines. Perfect for preparing for the upcoming rides the next couple of days. We arrived in Castle Rock at around 4 pm. After a good dinner (completed by a free piece of apple pie a la mode) we called it an early night.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we plan to ride approximately 48 miles to Colorado Springs. We think that we have identified a couple of off road bike trails to take most of the way. The obvious advantage if these work out is that it is off road. But these rails to trails are often flatter and less hilly. We will have to see.