What a beautiful day to be on a bicycle!  This was quite the interesting ride with diverse ride options.  Keith Hofreiter and I rode from our homes in Colorado Springs to the start in Monument via the Santa Fe trail.  We arrived early and linked up with Robin Schroyer, John Jamison, Julie Glenn and Matt Coble.  After a brief discussion regarding which direction we were going to tackle the planned route, we decided counter-clockwise would be interesting.  This meant the first several miles had some very steep hills (thinking of changing the route name to Rude Awakening).  Once we regrouped at the junction of Best and Andrews Rd., Julie and Robin decided to alter their plans and go explore Spruce Mountain Open Space.  The rest of us stayed to plan and rode the scheduled route at an ambitious pace.  It was a very hot day and once we reached Greenland Open Space we rode the top path which includes more climbing before exiting and continuing to Palmer Lake.  Keith showed John and I the new Sante Fe Open Space which included even more climbing and single track while Matt kept going towards Monument.  We all arrived at the Trails End Taproom and enjoyed some stories of how the ride went for everyone and had a cold beverage before departing.  I ended up riding home solo via the Santa Fe with a total of 84 miles and 5,289ft of climbing.  Average speed for the ride ranged from 13.5 to 14.4mph.  

What I love about this club is that everyone shows up with a positive attitude and we adjust on the fly as needed.  It was a great day and I hope to see more of you out there in the near future!