The Green River Bike Trail

The City of Green River, proud of its new bike path, placed tweleve donated yellow bikes along it's bike paths. The reason for this was to encourage people to bike them. After nine were stolen, they removed the three remaining bikes. How sad. Anyway, Renita and I had been meaning to bike the trail that runs along the Green River so we loaded up the bikes and headed to town!
We parked at Expedition Island,(In case you didn't know it got its name from the expeditions led by John Wesley Powell, a one armed geologist who led the first and second trips down the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. He embarked on his journey from this island). After unloading the bikes we headed across the footbridge and headed downstream. The first leg was a pleasant but short ride as we ran into a barrier that said the trail was closed. What? It turned out they were staining the wooden boardwalk and so the trail was blocked for about half a mile. We walked the bikes up a steep hill and negotiated a path throught the downtown streets using a stoplight to cross the busy highway.
After the brief detour, we got back on the trail. Two deer drank from the Green River as geese rested along its banks. A little further we stopped to rest, before resuming our ride past settling ponds crowded by american avocets. We reached the first park where people were playing baseball and little kids soccer. It reminded us of when the kids were little and played at Bicentenial Park in Gilette...
Returning to the trail we found it still blocked by the stainers so we took the detour and almost got run over by a turning car,(We were at the stoplight and using the stop signal we had the right of way). Resisting my urge to flip them off we contined to the river, pausing to look at the rapids and plan for a canoe trip when the river reaches its lower summer flow.
We watched as the kids played on the water park, the park contains a free place where water jets shoot into the air. What a fun place! A couple launched innertubes and responded to our questions that the water was a bit cold. Loading the bikes up we returned home with definite plans to return. Another fun day. Clear skies.