Little Scraggy Trail and Centennial Cone

We are running out of summer. Out of desperation for some vacation, we extended our weekend into a Monday. But I'll start back on Saturday when Quinn and I went to the Buffalo Creek area to do some trail building with COMBA. We worked on a continuation of the Little Scraggy Trail, the first half of which was completed last year. Eventually it will be about a 10- or 12-mile loop connected to the Colorado Trail. This was our first trail building event with COMBA. We met the group at 8:30, had some coffee and muffins, and then walked a couple of miles to the section of trail we'd be working on. The trail was flagged, so mostly what we had to do was use some tools to remove the organic layer and get the slope right. There were some more challenging spots where we had to figure out how to get the trail past loose rocks in and out of a drainage. It was fun. Here's a picture of Quinn with a McLeod.

We worked until about 1:30, then walked back to the staging area (in a campground) where COMBA set up a grill and we had a mid-afternoon lunch. Quinn and I brought our bikes with us, hoping for a ride after the trail building was done, but we were pretty tired, and then the afternoon storms rolled in. So we just headed home.

Sunday was spent running errands and spending money. Quinn's feet are growing at about an inch a month, I think, so he's almost always in need of new shoes. I also did some cleanup on the black tandem, including replacing the fluid in the suspension fork, and we set up my Nickel for Luca to ride the next day.

Monday morning, instead of going to work, we got an early start for a ride at Centennial Cone Park. We loaded the bikes and gear onto the big black Armada and picked up Abbey's Luca on the way. Cindy and I rode the black tandem, the kids their usual bikes, and Luca rode my Nickel. It worked out pretty well that way, but tandem mountain biking is a challenge! Click here to see our route on Garmin Connect.

Quinn had to make sure the tandem was working before Cindy and I got on it.

It was a beautiful day to be out. The high temperature was only about 80 F, so it was very comfortable; just a little warm in the sun.

The rain has made for happy vegetation this year.

There aren't many challenging rocks on the Centennial Cone loop, mostly just a bunch of tight switchbacks, but there is one fun staircase. Quinn rode it very smoothly.