Colorado Springs: First ride of the year

January 16, 2025 to January 18, 2025

Thursday – Let's break this bike-fast

Thursday morning Barry expertly backs the car and trailer up Scott and Lynne's long snow-packed driveway and we are off for Colorado Springs. The temperature there is expected to get up to 53 today. That's warm enough to get back on the bike! The drive isn't long so we should be able to swing a ride in the afternoon.

He makes it up the driveway in one go, with just a little sliding around on the hill.

Daniel moved to Colorado Springs eight years ago after college. Since then three people in my family and a friend have all moved there. We're excited to see them over the next couple of days, and to hang out with Daniel at his townhome.

We have to park the RV somewhere else though, because the parking lot at his place has no place for it. Luckily my brother Matt's new house has a nice long driveway where we can park it for a couple of days. Matt and his wife Sue are shuttling between here and their home in Illinois while they dive into a gut rehab on the new house. It's near Ute Valley Park, a great spot for mountain biking that I bet Matt will be all over.

So that's our first stop. Matt's house is at the top of a long hill that's riddled with speed bumps. The paint is wearing off the bumps and some of the trees partially obstruct the warning signs, so a couple of them sneak up on us. When we roll over one surprise bump at 12 mph there's a big bang from behind, followed by an awful scraping noise.

A guy who lives in the house we've stopped in front of comes over to see what's happened as we walk back to assess the situation. The hitch has popped off the ball, the trailer is sitting on the metal foot for the hitch and we've been dragging the whole works by the chains. A smoking metal smell seems to be coming from said foot.

This has happened before, when we broke the hitch on a road bump in Grand Junction Colorado last January. That time we found out the ball was the wrong size, a problem easily remedied at the local Tractor Supply. There were all sorts of downstream consequences from that incident, culminating three days later in Death Valley, when I was driving down the steep hills out of the park. I had to work the car brakes hard to keep our speed in control. In Tucson a week later we found out that the trailer brakes were shot. That was expensive but it could have been worse; we were lucky.

This time nothing seems to be broken and Barry is able to jack up the hitch, get it back on the car and proceed as though everything is fine. Why it happened is a mystery though; something we'll have to investigate.

A little farther up the road we find the house and are relieved to unhitch the trailer safely in the driveway. Matt and Sue patiently hunted for many months in a tight housing market to find this place. The house sits on a beautiful spot overlooking the mountains. It's big enough for a family with six kids, rather large for their needs at this stage, but has what they really wanted - a view.

From the deck we can see Pikes Peak and - partly through a tree - Blodgett Peak. The tree won't be there much longer.

The renovation sounds like a mammoth project, involving relocation of structural walls and fireplaces. This could take awhile. They're here for a few days to meet with an engineer and architect about the plans.

Before we get out of their hair I ask Matt if he has any chain cleaner. My gravel bike and Barry's recumbent have been riding the back of the trailer since we left home. Caked with road grit and salt, they are in need of serious attention before any riding happens. He sets me up with a workstand, Muc-off, hose, bucket and lube. I clean off the crust while Barry moves the bike rack from the trailer to the car.

First time cleaning bikes outside with snow on the ground. I couldn't ask for a better setup.

On the drive over to Daniel's place I'm looking for a ride on a trail somewhere. The roads around here are very trafficky, not real tempting. It turns out according to Bike Colorado Springs that there are over 100 miles of paved trails here. On RidewithGPS I find a loop route on three greenways that are linked up by some small roads. Daniel thinks the paths will be clear enough of snow by now. Barry is not so sure; he's going to pass on this one.

At 3 pm I'm at the trailhead ready to ride. I have 23 miles to cover in the two hours left before sunset. This might be a little tight; my last ride was a month ago.

Just in case of whatever, I grab a picture of the car and save the parking location on my phone before leaving on the ride.

The route starts heading east on the Rock Island Trail, a rails-to-trails conversion of the same railroad line that became the Rock Island Trail back in Missouri. Only about a quarter of Missouri's Rock Island Trail is finished. Here it's paved and awesome.

Blue sky and sunshine on an empty trail, just what I've been craving

Rugged scenery is all around the Springs

After five miles on the Rock Island Trail I turn south and ride neighborhood streets to the Sand Creek Trail. It's beautiful; I love it out here, but I'm getting behind schedule, owing to some wrong turns, picture stops and general pokiness. This trail has some snow-packed sections in the shade that slow my progress further.

On a bridge over Sand Creek, with the trail to the right

At 4:20 with 12 miles to go it's clear that I'm not going to make it back to the car before dark. My bike has a taillight but no headlamp, and it's getting cold. I wonder how far I can get before I have to call someone to bail me out.

Really enjoying the path in the low winter sunlight, but the shadows are getting long

Ten minutes later my phone makes the decision for me when the screen goes dark. I can barely see that the battery is down to 2%. It's just enough juice to text Daniel my location and call him for a ride. Beyond the next underpass I spy a Jiffy Lube where we can meet. After hanging up and pedaling on through the underpass, I ride past a small homeless encampment behind the Jiffy Lube.

This doesn't feel like such a great place to wait. Next door however there's a Concentra physical therapy office that's more appealing. I ask to use the phone to call my son and update him on where I am. Stephanie the receptionist tells me to bring my bike in and offers to charge my phone while I wait. It's nice and warm in here. Closing time comes and goes at 5 pm and she reassures me she has plenty to do and is happy to wait til my ride gets here. She couldn't have been nicer.

Shortly after 5 Daniel pulls up and loads my bike into his car. He's very sweet about driving out to get me, despite my poor planning. As we drive off in the dark to find my car I'm glad I at least saved the location.

I stopped one mile from where I would have picked up the Pikes Peak Greenway, and 10 miles from the finish. Ah well, 13 miles is better than no miles.

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For dinner we meet up with Matt, Sue, and my niece Katie who moved here last year to work for SRAM. She's a design engineer working on bike parts, an awesome job for a cyclist.

We're at Uchenna, an Ethiopian restaurant in Old Colorado City. They bring out their specialty... a big platter of meats, lentils and veggies for the six of us to share. There are no utensils, just baskets filled with rolls of injera, a flatbread made from an ancient Ethiopian grain called teff. You spin the platter around to reach your target, tear off a piece of teff and use it to scoop up the food. It's an unusual dining experience, slightly messy but delicious.

Dinner with the family - Sue, Katie, Matt, Barry, me and Daniel. Lots of reasons here to spend more time in the Springs.

Shoulda taken the picture before we started diving in on this. All yummy, especially the lamb.

Later Daniel, Barry and I play Gin to wind down from the day. It's a tight game with several lead changes, but ultimately Barry breaks the 500 point mark first for the win. Great day.

Friday at the Garden of the Gods

Barry and I are meeting my friend Geta and her man Frank today for a hike around the Garden of the Gods. Geta was from St. Louis originally and later from all over. She traveled the country in an RV, volunteering in national parks before settling here where her son lives. This is our first time meeting Frank. They've been together for a year and it's evident they are kindred spirits.

Frank hikes this park several times a week and knows all the trails. He leads us on a circuit through the hills outside the central garden. I'm deep into the conversation as we walk and remind myself to look up from the trail ahead every so often to take in the scene.

Getting a long view on these massive red rock formations

Frank and Geta, and someone else back behind them

There he his. Now that's a handsome beast.

As we circle around toward the central garden, the weather is changing fast. A brisk wind blows in that will bring snow and sub-zero temperatures tonight. Our plan to depart for Tucson tomorrow might not be such a great idea.

The wind is bearing down as we walk into the central garden

We order pizza – Papa Murphy's, just like our usual Friday night thing at home – and regroup at Frank's house to play their National Parks game. You don't have to know a lot of trivia about the parks, its more of a strategy game. In fact it's good for learning about some I haven't heard of, like Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska- the largest U.S. national park. Fun game.

It's snowing when we leave to meet some of Daniel's friends at his house. Looks like the roads won't be too good for driving tomorrow.

Saturday

We definitely aren't driving south today on the icy mountain roads ahead. Instead we'll hole up here for one more day and help Daniel plot some home improvements. I'm happy to have some extra time with him.

In the afternoon the local roads are good enough to venture out to Home Depot. We're here for a pegboard and supplies to do some organizing in the garage.

Tomorrow it should be fine to drive out of here. I'll pick up the story again when we get to Tucson.

Daniel has my Dad's ancient drill. The battery is fading so it needs to rest a few times on the charger to get all the screws in. This might be the swan song; you can't find a new battery for it anymore.

Today's ride: 13 miles (21 km)
Total: 26 miles (42 km)

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