Kevin - Friday. Truthfully, Denny and I have felt stronger on the bikes than we anticipated. Even with headwinds we are making our planned distances with little to no pain the next morning. Pain meds? Pshaw!
After discussing it, we decided to push all the way to Denver today if possible. Doing so would greatly simplify our weekend tasks. It’s a gentle downhill along Cherry Creek and expected to be a VERY NICE bike path. No traffic to contend with. Just follow the yellow brick road.
Now, we are not ones to brag, but though we were both tired at the end, we were able pump out a tad over an incredible 50 miles between us. Denny started at Castlewood State Park’s Homestead trail head, and I finished us out at Confluence Park, downtown Denver. Don’t believe our claim? Check it out: See Distance
“Oh,” you say. “But that’s only 47.8 miles.” Yes, that’s true. However, one also needs to take into account that bike trails are not always well marked and that at least one of us is handicapped for following mapped directions. This results in the occasional unplanned and ill-advised detour which, after repenting, added some significant distance to the expected 47.8 miles. Thus, we can confidently state we shared a 50-miler today.
We humbly admit that there are cyclists who routinely do many more miles per day than we did, but I’m almost 71 and Denny is … well, younger. So, there.
As I’m fond of saying, one sees more at 3 miles per hour than 70. So, we may have missed some things while whizzing along at 10 mph, it probably wasn’t much.
The valley gradually widened out and I saw a BIG, well-fed coyote at the Cherry Creek Reservoir State Park. Didn’t get a photo though. In fact, neither of us took many photos today. Too busy biking. We were both very impressed by the local conservation work and commitment to providing a public friendly green-way bike/hike route. Both the Cherry Creek and South Platte Trail groups have much to be proud of.
I stopped in at the 4-Mile Historic Park. It’s a small version of This is the Place Historic Park in Salt Lake City. Same approach to teaching kids and the public about the ‘old days.’ Why is the 4-Mile Park location about 6-1/2 miles from Confluence Park? Because the old trail cut across the point created by the confluence. Kearny in 1845 cut the corner. The ‘center point’ of Denver isn’t at the confluence area. Learn More
Things got a little grungier near downtown Denver. The mile-high city suffers from a homeless problem like other large cities. Not pretty, but at no time did I feel in danger. The Confluence Park was busy with families and workers on lunch break. Night-time might be different. Can’t say.
As soon as we finished, we drove back to Franktown in rush hour traffic. We decided to let things settle down so we at dinner at Adriana’s Mexican Restaurant. They had THE BEST chicken mole I’ve had in 20+ years. The peanuts, peppers, and chocolate were perfectly played off with each other.
Then we really got busy. We finished prepping the trailer, hooked up and drove 60 miles to Fort Lupton Historic Park. We will participate with their Heritage Fair tomorrow as the Mormon Battalion detachments passing through just like they did in 1847.
By the time we set the trailer it was after 9 PM but we were still so hyped we watched one of our favorite movies; Dave (1993) before turning in. Early day tomorrow.