August 24, 2021
Another river ride
Fruita loop times 2
It was another beautiful day in the Grand Valley with blue skies and hardly any wind. We decided that today we would go east on the Riverfront Trail to see what we could find.
The trail's hookup out of the campground was a little convoluted and not signed at all. Luckily Don had checked the directions to go on his phone before we left as we would have easily gotten turned around!
After crossing a busy street and meandering around a business area, we reached the trail which ran alongside of the interstate. While the trail surface was nice wide, smooth concrete, we had multiple driveway and road crossings. Plus being next to the highway was pretty noisy.
Eventually the trail angled away from I-70 and we found ourselves back along the Colorado River. Ahhh - this was much more pleasant!
We both observed that the river was very brown and dirty looking. Maybe the rain and mudslides in the canyon had been causing the cloudiness or is this normal?
It was also quite perplexing that despite being in a wildlife refuge, we saw hardly any waterfowl or other birds. Other than a few great blue heron, some killdeer and geese, we spotted no other ducks. Even the birdlife was pretty lacking except for hummingbirds and lots of dragon flies. We've put out our hummingbird feeder in camp in the hopes that we can draw in a few hummers.
Eventually the nice concrete trail degraded to rough cracked asphalt. We figured that this was an older section. There were a few parks along the way that had restrooms which I appreciated since there were none yesterday!
Don decided to turn around at about the 10 mile mark and we retraced our route back to camp. We hadn't been riding much the past few weeks due to the horrid smoke and ozone polluted Denver's air so I was fine with 21 miles plus it was heating up outside. Going forward we'll be working our legs and knees up to longer mileages.
After lunch, we lounged around reading our books and doing a few chores. It seems like I'm always sweeping or mopping our floor.
At about 4 pm, Don said he wanted to take the kayak out onto a small lake in the campground. We drove over to the put-in spot where we managed to pump up the boat, get the paddles put together and find the rest of our gear like the life jackets.
Well, we both made it into the boat without tipping it over which was a success as far as Don was concerned. Although it was hot out, it felt cool on the water and I enjoyed watching the dragon flies land on the bow in front of me.
But it wasn't long before my back started hurting because we hadn't gotten my inflatable seat pumped up enough or adjusted tight enough in the boat to give me much support. The paddling also caused the tendonitis in my hands, wrists and forearms to flare up. I've suffered from this for many years and had hoped that this wouldn't happen. Normally I would have worn my wrist and elbow supports, but had forgotten to put them on.
We didn't do a long paddle and soon headed for shore where we loaded up and returned to camp. Even though we didn't fall into the lake, our butts were totally soaked - maybe from water flowing off the paddles onto us? My arms and hands also really hurt so I immediately started icing them.
Frankly I'm ready to sell Sprite and forget about trying this again. So disappointing. I really wish we had been able to try this out before the trip, but with my cataract surgery and the poor air quality all summer, we just couldn't do it. Anyone up for buying a nearly new kayak?
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Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 1,111 miles (1,788 km)
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There are definitely different trail surfaces with varying qualities. I'm having trouble remember many drive way crossings . . . . I did like the section over by Corn Lake best. It's more remote.
The day I rode with Jim, we saw many riders, including trikes.
Give Sprite another try. Pump up your back support, etc. Getting gear situated isn't as fun for some of us (me), as others. I like to just get on and go!
3 years ago