Summer Rides Sometimes Have Pitfalls

This morning after taking the dogs to swim at the reservoir, they were exhausted and ready to sleep in the house, so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to take Tony Stark out for a little ride. It's been a few weeks since I've been on him due to vacation and other happenings. Since we're very close to triple degree temps here today, I tried to plan out a route that would allow me some shade from trees. The best route I could think of was to take the St. Vrain Greenway, which winds through the city and has the river running along side it. Plus, once you get riding, it never feels quite as warm as it actually is in reality.

My plan was to ride at least 20 miles just to get some time in that wasn't a quick jaunt within a few miles of home. To get to the greenway is just about a mile or so from the house, so being in direct sun was just a short portion of the ride.  When I got to the trail's edge, I jumped on and started riding. It felt great to just be out, despite the hot sun beating on me.  Who wouldn't appreciate it when you have views like this?

Tony and I were pedaling right along, when we came upon this:

A road block (or rather, a trail block, I suppose). I was totally bummed. Here I was, ready to set out on my adventure and just a few miles in, we were at a dead end. For those without super vision, here's what the sign says:

Since our temperatures have reached some serious highs, all the snow in the mountains has begun mass melting and is filling up the rivers. While this is certainly a good thing to have water flowing, it makes early summer trail rides a bit of a challenge when it over takes the sidewalk. I considered just going around the side of the gate (since one can quite easily get around it on foot), but I thought better of it. Plus, Tony looked so sad when I left him sitting on the other side.

In reality, the water is a bit deeper than it appears. While we could have waded through it, the line is probably about 8-12 inches at its deepest point.

Tony and I turned around and headed back in the direction we'd come from, and used the east bound portion of the trail instead. Unfortunately, this portion of the trail doesn't have much shade and we didn't last too long, which caused the intended 20 mile ride to turn into an approximate 12 mile ride.

Regardless, it was nice to be outside, as always, and a shorter-than-intended ride is always better than no ride at all!