the riding is good in these here parts

Wow, the riding sure is good out here. I'm trying hard to stay away from Peaceful Valley (fighting the addiction, rather). I'm always amazed at the sweet rides you can put together from here with very little drive time. I drove up the hill today, only 20 minutes, to the Lion Gulch trailhead. I heard that Hermit Park is open for business, so I boogied up 36 to Larimer County's newest open space. Surprisingly, the 4 or 5 miles on the highway was safe, went quickly, and I was able ride most of it in the big ring. Hermit Park is beautiful. It's nice that we can ride thru there legally now. The plan was to enter Hermit Park to connect to Homestead Meadows. From there, some looping around the historic homesteads before returning to the car via Lion Gulch.

A few switchbacks up the road in Hermit Park, I turned around to see the storage building off the highway with RMNP and Estes Park beyond.


It's a few miles of dirt road with beautiful views before you reach the trail that gets you into Homestead Meadows. I talked to the ranger about it, too. It's the only trail open right now (cause 99% of it was already there) and it's all good for bikes. Just gotta pay your $6 Larimer County day fee...

I think that it's important to note that if the above picture was a trail in Boulder County, the trail would have to be perfectly manicured to be open yet. If it was Jefferson County, you'd already see 3 wooden waterbars with rubber mud flaps on them. Good thing Larimer County is realistic and down to earth enough to realize that trail thru the grass is exactly that...

There's still a few relatively hidden gems in the meadows area, too.

I checked out a not oft checked out spur. It dead ended after going the the hardest hit area of the Big Elk Fire. I found these and my head started playing tricks on me. A group of antlers like this was more than likely collected by people at some time or another. Either that or a monster cat that specialized in taking down big game bucks and racking up the kill with a bonepile. This is also where I turned around because the trail had petered out by this time and I was kind of bushwhacking.

The return trip down Lion Gulch was as sweet as ever. I only encountered 2 other hikers, which was rare for a Sunday. I guess Sunday eve at 8pm is a good time to descend LG.

Yep, purdy good.