It’s fun to eat popsicles on PopCycle Bridge, kids say. Especially after riding their bikes for 3 miles. Red was the hands-down favorite kind last Sunday among kids who made the fairly flat trek to the bridge from America the Beautiful Park along Legacy Loop trail in Colorado Springs.
But really, any flavor will do, said 5-year-old Augie Schneider, who joined his parents and younger brother in the ever-popular Family PopCycle Ride, presented by Kids on Bikes. The nonprofit organization works to “inspire and empower all kids to lead healthy, active and happy lives through bicycling,” with camps, clinics, afterschool programs, school donations and other events. A plush Pikachu, the famous Pokémon character, rode in Augie’s backpack.
After digging around in a cooler the Fountain Creek Watershed District provided, Augie wielded two complimentary popsicles like swords before popping them into his mouth and savoring the sweetness. “Seeing how much joy you can bring is wonderful. It’s so simple, but it continues a tradition that they’ll remember for a long time,” said Mark Yeadon, a Kids on Bikes volunteer.
For the past 12 years, children have slurped rainbow-colored popsicles at the rest stop along an abandoned roadway bridge that was rejuvenated a decade ago and has become a vital connection in the city’s urban trail system. Mark Yeadon looks on as brothers Augie and Sam Schneider pick out their popsicles during Sunday's Family PopCycle Ride to the PopCycle Bridge by Kids on Bikes. Mom Courtney Meyer also is pictured.
(Debbie Kelley/The Gazette) This season’s last ride is Sunday, Aug. 25. It’s a “We All Ride” event, so along with the usual PopCycle family ride, two local adaptive bike organizations will provide accessible bikes for anyone to borrow during the ride.
The Cool C.A.T.
S. Club, a program of the Arc of the Pikes Peak Region that hosts social events and activities for people who have physical, developmental or intellectual disabilities; and Angletech, which builds recumbent bikes and trikes, will loan out adaptive bikes. Anyone interested can show up at America the Beautiful Park at 1 p.
m. on Sunday. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the community-supported facelift of the old bridge, described on a sign at the site as “a brutally utilitarian place” before the transformation.
Afterward, it’s become “a magical place,” the sign says, where kids bask in the accomplishment of their bike ride, play with other children, gaze at the wonders of nature around them and lick ice-cold popsicles. Courtney Meyer and her sons Sam and Augie Schneider enjoy popsicles on Sunday, Aug. 18, during the Family PopCycle Ride to PopCycle Bridge by Kids on Bikes.
(Debbie Kelley/The Gazette) The bridge that spans Monument Valley Creek west of where North Wood Avenue dead-ends in the Old North End neighborhood remains a conduit for an active Colorado Springs Utilities line carrying non-potable water. So there’s still chain-link fencing with barbed wire and a thick pipe that’s been painted light purple. But the bridge also features 220 feet of decorative, yet functional bench wall as part of the $60,000 renovation undertaken in 2014 and dedicated in 2015.
The bridge has been turned into a safety teaching station for children, as well, with demonstration lines on the ground that mimic a street, so children learn and practice riding in a safe way before going on a real road. Scads of community assistance and support helped get the project done. “Many organizations came together to create the bridge in the current form you see,” said longtime cycling advocate Allen Beauchamp, who was involved with its creation.
“It’s a wonderful public-private partnership, and it worked.” Beauchamp brought the first batch of popsicles to what was then the Kids on Bikes Family Ride on June 10, 2012. Children were surprised and appreciative, he said, as the temperature climbed to 94 degrees that day.
He originally thought he’d supply ice cream for riders; it was his wife’s suggestion to switch to popsicles. She said ice cream would create a sticky mess in the sweltering heat. She was right, Beauchamp acknowledges.
Word spread quickly that the ride had been improved to include free popsicles, and participation grew, Beauchamp said. Kids on Bikes celebrates its 10th anniversary and the opening of the Popcycle Bridge in August of 2015 along the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail just north of Monument Valley Park. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock) “It really wasn’t us that named it, it was the kids,” he said.
“PopCycle Bridge didn’t become a place until we started bringing kids there with the popsicles, and it’s still going strong,” he said. “It becomes the best of summer.” Now, the weekly ride, which is held every Sunday in June, July and August, draws anywhere from 18 to 40 participants, said program manager Emily Shields.
“It’s a free, fun family activity that is open to all ages and all abilities,” she said. “There’s not a lot of opportunities for families to ride together. We have people from all walks of life.
” Popsicles also provide motivation for children to reach the halfway point of the ride, said Jill Martin, who led last Sunday’s event. “It’s this funky little ride that keeps on going,” Beauchamp said. The program expanded this year to add three Family PopCycle Rides in Southeast Colorado Springs, from Deerfield Hills Community Center, where there’s a loan program for bikes and helmets, to nearby parks.
Kids on Bikes is working to offer more rides next summer, Shields said..
