Biking Loveland, Colorado's Recreation Trail

The 26 mile Loveland recreation Trail, which is comprised of several local trails with roadways used as connections, encircles the town which calls itself "The Gateway to the Rockies." Much of the trail follows the Big Thompson River as it passes through several parks. My motel was on Eisenhower Blvd. (Rte.34)  and just happened to be a block from where the trail goes under the road, so I biked that section of the trail which is on the east side of town.

Here's the map that's posted in many places along the trail.

I soon came to a residential road and didn't see any sign indicating where the trail went, so I followed a biker I saw a few hundred yards ahead of me. The trail went from paved to this gravel/dirt path and soon was alongside a canal, but since my mountain bike had no trouble on the surface, I kept going for a mile-plus before realizing I wasn't on the actual trail, so I turned around and went back to the street and then saw a sign pointing down the residential street.

After a few blocks of residences, I arrived at a paved trail with a trail sign which I biked ...

...and arrived at the west shore of Boyd Lake on a nice paved path with lovely scenery for miles. I enjoyed the sights and the boats and people enjoying the water and the playgrounds, but it was getting to be late afternoon so after six or more miles, I turned around and headed back to the motel to check in, having enjoyed being out biking for an hour or more. Nice trail and lovely scenery!

If I hadn't had to leave the next morning to meet a volunteer service group in Rocky Mountain National Park, I would have liked to have biked on one of Loveland's nice unpaved trails. Maybe next time I'm in this part of Colorado!

Biking Ft. Collins, Colorado's Spring Creek Trail

The Spring Creek Trail travels seven miles through Ft. Collins on a paved, flat  surface, with tunnels under many of the larger roads. I was passing through town on my way to Rocky Mountain National Park, and I began my ride at Edora Community Park's disc golf range because it was easy to find off the interstate. I headed east and quickly reached its end point at the Poudre River Trail at the Cattail Chorus Natural Area. Since I'd biked part of that trail my last time in Colorado a few years back, I turned around, went back to the parking lot and then kept going west on the Spring Creek Trail for another six miles or so. Mile markers are placed every quarter mile.

Here's a map of the Ft. Collins trail system -- sorry for the poor quality of the photo due to the sun. Spring Creek Trail runs from the Powder River Trail west to West Drake Road/ Spring Canyon Community Park and the Pineridge Natural Area.

The trail had a lot of spur trails and a couple times I had to turn around and get back on the main trail, but it was pretty heavily traveled that Sunday and I discovered I could just follow the flow of traffic and stay on course. The creek had lots of lovely scenery...

...and even a small dam with lots of wildflowers on the banks...

...and a few housing areas...

...and even a few small ranch-type areas, so the scenery kept changing.

Many of the roads had underpasses...