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.
No comments:
Post a Comment