Biking to downtown Denver

We're all a little tired today. After doing a little internet research I found that there was a paved path that goes from where we live all the way to downtown. We bike about 14 miles north and stopped at Confluence park which is where the Platte River and the Cherry Creek river meet. (not really rivers as much as they are large creeks). It was a nice ride there. Relatively flat. What I learned on the way back was that what I thought was relatively flat was actually a gradual downhill. I should have been paying attention to the fact that we were following Cherry Creek downsteam. It went from easy to not-so-easy on the way back. Gradually uphill isn't ussually a problem, but I happened to be towing somewhere between 90-100 pounds in the bike trailer (two boys, picnic food, xtra bike pump. extra clothes bike lock, etc.) I felt like a mush dog for the whole ride home. Cranking my bike in something close to my granny gear to hold on to 13-14 mph had my legs spinning like a motor with a very serious concentrated look on my face. At one point I looked behind me on the way home and realized I couldn't see Cherity. When she finally caught up she had a very exasperated look on her face. Apparently she had yelling for me to pull over because some other bikers had separated us. I had no idea and was too mentally out of it to think to look back to make sure she was right there. So anyway we logged just under 29 miles and learned how to get downtown without a car. Very cool. The park was awesome. There are bikers all over the place downtown and on the trails. Biking seems to be huge around here.

The pictures below are of the Confluence Park. Beyond the bridges you can see the tower in the background which is part of Elitch Garden/Six Flags. You probably cant make it out but right below the bridge (in the distance) is Invesco Field (Where the Broncos play). Also in the distance we could see the childrens museum. Seems wierd that we biked that far. But it definitely was a great feeling to complete the feet. Also, the pictures below show the rivers. The confluence sits right in front of the REI flagship (a popular sporting goods store). I could have easily blown a ton of money there had I been given a credit card that didn't have my name on it. The Platte River (funny that it's named the Platte River since I grew up to another Platte River in Wisconsin) has a kayaking course on it right in front of REI. We took in the sun; bought the boys some crocs; I bought three hotdogs for me and the boys; the boys threw rocks in the water as they waded in the shallows (they never get sick of doing that) and then we headed home.

Owen did great going both ways but Seb started to melt down on the way home for a couple of miles before he fell asleep. The last picture shows Sebby waking up as we took apart our bike trailer etc.....