On our last day in Fort Collins, my girlfriend Maya and I borrowed my parent''s 25-year-old coaster bikes and decided to take a short ride to Old Town to enjoy some lunch. We didn''t have a map, but this posed no problem as the bike path was well marked. After picking up the path on the eastern edge of the city, we followed it through a few miles of surprisingly varied scenery. Within an hour we had biked past a flat, dried-out prairie, some rolling hills, a short stretch of green woods, and the Cache la Poudre River. We also managed to spot a few animals along the way, highlighted by a mother duck leading her brood across a stream and an unsettling amount of groundhogs. We didn''t, however, see many people, and this was a welcome development.
Upon reaching Old Town we locked our bikes and enjoyed lunch at a local brewery called CooperSmith''s (#5 Old Town Square). Maya complained that the restrooms in the restaurant were poorly marked, but I believe this to be a minor quibble.
Unfortunately, upon leaving the restaurant I discovered that my front tire had gone flat. I initially blamed the incident on school kids playing a prank, but a quick search revealed no likely offenders and thus no ears to box. Luckily, the nearest bike repair shop was a short distance away, and the leak was soon repaired.
Maya and I biked home on roughly the same path, but as we neared the city''s indoor skating rink and swimming pool complex, I suffered my second flat tire of the day. It would be easy to blame the Fort Collins bike path for my bad luck, but in truth, the most likely cause was the age and condition of my parents'' bicycles. After a brief phone discussion, my father agreed, and Maya and I finished our bike ride in his van.