|
In honor of Transportation Month, we will be publishing our favorite local bike rides to inspire you to hop back on your bicycle and start pedaling. If you need even more inspiration, check out the upcoming issue of Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac, available online and at bookstores and bike shops nationwide.
Bike Ride #2 by Jason Hardung
One of my favorite bike rides is through Rolland Moore Park at two or three in the morning. I started taking this route a couple years ago when I was dating a girl over there, and I still love the ride today, but don't love her. I enter through the North end, where it really isn't considered the park yet. There is a dirt trail next to a creek. Just a creek. I'm not good with names. It switches back and forth as trees hang above me motherly and eventually it forks into the main trail that circles the park. At that time of darkness there are no other people around, just me, the stars, and the occasional deer. I turn off my light and turn up my headphones and just go, go, go. I become the music. The soft morning breeze pushes the tears from my eyes. The ride gives me time to reflect. Or not reflect on anything. A couple times I've almost hit a cop car head on as it crept down the trail with it's spotlight in the bushes (the park closes at 11pm.), but I disappeared into the shadows before they could speak. I am a jack rabbit on wheels. I am nothing. Sometimes a thick layer of fog hovers above the ground, sometimes there is a light drizzle. I like being invisible. I am the weather. I come out on the other end. The stoplights flash red. Streetlights line the sidewalk. I reappear.
Bike Ride #1 by Carrie Visintainer
 My favorite bike ride takes me from my house in Laporte to Old Town on the good 'ol Poudre Trail. I begin where the bike trail intersects Overland Trail and head east for five or six miles. I've never measured the exact distance, but it takes thirty minutes on my cruiser. I love each segment of the trail for the gentle curves that wind through varied landscapes, from the Butterfly Woods Natural Area, to a small wetland near Lee Martinez Park. My favorite barn of all time-- because the color is just right-- stands in the distance between Overland and Taft. I always whisper "hello" to a lone black horse who lives in a pen near Taft. Closer to Old town, I admire the Poudre river. This ride takes me almost everywhere I need to go: to work, volunteer, my yoga studio, the Farmer's Market, and more.
For riders coming the opposite direction, there are some charming rewards in Laporte. My favorites include the Bar SS (formerly the Swing Station), The Old Feed Store and Laporte Pizza.
|
