Fort. Collins and the Last Day Ride Home

Monday started off with McDonalds Al Fresco on the front steps to the Jeep Dealership next door.  It’s not easy to find a place for your takeaway food when you don’t really have a place to take it but we had a beautiful morning to enjoy it. 

After an easy morning we visited our local friend Brad’s standing Pickle Ball round-robin  to see how pickle ball is “really played” and then after lunch he took us on a bike tour of Ft. Collins.   After this and previous time spent in Ft. Collins I’d have to say it is the most cycle-centric and cycle friendly town I’ve seen in the US. The trails and bikeways along the road are plentiful, interesting and in great shape and widely used.  

Part of the afternoon was spent riding along and across the Cache La Poudre River, this spot just north of Old Town where lots of folks are kayaking, tubing or swimming in the cold water. 

After 20 miles of riding and site seeing we settled in at Brad’s place for a little relaxation before the day ended. 

Monday morning started beautifully as we spent 90% of our ride/time on paved paths like this wandering around, down to and through Loveland more than 20 miles away.  

Not all of the trails connect directly so we had to spend a handful of miles  reconnoitering on  County roads and US287.  It was still great riding. 

 

Further south as we approached the border between Larimer and Boulder County we found more ranches, farms and lots of baby animals like these colts. 

We stopped at Loveland Civic Center Park for Elevenses of little cherry pies and peanut butter crackers. It’s getting warmer so the garden bench in the shade was a nice find. 

8 more miles to home we once again find ourselves at the Mountain Fountain in Hygiene for a Chocolate milk for Ang and Mountain Dew for me to get us home. Angela shows off her new birthday cycling sandals to two carved owls keeping eyes-on my parked bike. They were as impressed and pleased as Angela was with the gift.  

1:30pm, before the hottest and windiest part of the day, we happily and safely arrive home.  While it’s still weird out there in public places we adapted, changed our expectations and had a great time. It was also very refreshing just to get away for a few days. While not the 3 week trip to Europe that we were supposed to be on these last few weeks, it was a refreshing, invigorating and enjoyable diversion and we expect to do more things like this in the coming months. Be safe and well everyone.