[Gravel Ride] East / West + City Pavement

The East / West Trail got the better of me on this ride! One of my #23for23 (goals for 2023) items includes riding the entire 28 miles East / West Trail through Highlands Ranch Douglas County, and Parker Colorado. I’ve run a few miles before and cycled to Inspiration Point last year with my sights set high this year!

The initial plan was to pick up the trail at Rock Canyon High School and ride east until the trail ends in Parker, Colorado. Then turn around and ride the entire trail east to west. After a few wrong turns getting to the trail, I I picked it up at Bluffs Regional Park and was immediately faced with a gnarly climb filled with deep wash out ruts running throughout. This is the big question mark. After record rainfall two days prior, what would the trail be like? The sentence above says it all!

After a lovely ride through the Highland Ranch Backcountry Wilderness Area section filled with glorious mountain and city views, things get real! After going under Interstate 25, the trail is filled with rolling hills and LOTS of wash runout on most sections of the trails. So much so that I was going just as slow down as I was up. I kept telling myself that this was great bike handling practice and I was continuously improving my skills!

I decided to turn around at Rueter-Hess a few miles short of the end and intended goal as my elapsed time was creeping up and wanted to stay until 4 hours and 30 minutes for the total ride. Upon passing the Bluffs Regional Park, I was in new territory and decided to ignore a detour sign as the single track looked so cool…only to turn around with an enforced gate closure. I think this was the point where I decided I was done with the washed out ruts on the trail and moved to the roads. Luckily, there was a bike friendly road along the trail including an epic gravel road stretch! I hooked up with Wildcat Reserve Parkway and rode back to my car parked at Plum Valley Park in Highlands Ranch.