Cherryvale Trailhead -
North on South Boulder Creek Trail
Trail Map
Please see Cherryvale South on South Boulder Creek Trail to read about the trailer parking and Southern part of this trail. On this ride Sam and I rode North from the Cherryvale Trailhead parking lot.
Footing
The trail was wide and soft. The footing was a mixture of crushed gravel and sand. Sam was comfortable trotting on the trail with only front shoes.
Horse Hazards
The main horse hazard is the underpass going under S. Boulder road. It is long and dark. However, the roof is thick and the road traffic noise is not as loud as going under the Hwy 36 underpass on the trail south. We happened to ride this trail during spring break during the plague of the Coronavirus in March of 2020. I thought everyone would be at home. This was not the case, we saw old people with walking sticks, strollers, children, bikes and skooters! Sam did great but I recommend riding this trail early on a weekday and avoiding spring-break or the Coronavirus work from home season.
Chosen Trail
From the Cherryvale parking lot we rode north at the fork with the underpass that goes north under S. Boulder Rd. We rode 4.4 miles in 1 hr and 15 minutes including a 5-10 minute pause for me to coax Sam to go through the underpass. We had ridden from the parking lot to the Bobolink trailhead and back to the underpass in 1 hr. This was an incredibly lovely trail after going through the underpass. If there was less foot traffic we would have trotted and cantered. There were several places where you could have walked down to the creek to drink water. The creek was full of playing children so we just continued riding.
Trail Experience
We will start our narrative at the first fork of the S. Boulder Creek and Cherryvale trail. Going to the right you head north under S. Boulder Road. Left you will go through some swing gates and head south eventually going under 36. We turned right/north and headed toward the underpass.
Sam was pretty good. I dismounted and we slowly walked up to the underpass.
Sam and I took a big breath after the tunnel. We stood and ate grass and had some treats.
|
Looking down the tunnel you can see it is pretty long and dark. The trail north of this tunnel is wonderful if you can convince your horse to trust you enough to follow you through. I have reins with swivel snaps at both ends. I love this feature so I can easily unhook my reins and use them on his rope halter like a lead-rope.
We crossed a wide concrete bridge then remounted.
|
From here the trail was wonderful! The path was wide and soft. It was very inviting to do a little trotting.
We crossed another bridge and then wove between some trees. There were a lot of hikers. The trail got busier the closer we got to the Bobolink trailhead.
There were some nice gradual curves and some straightaways to trot or canter.
We did more trotting. There were a lot of bikers passing us.
We came to a fork. The left fork goes to the rec center and is a trail access point. We stayed right. There was a sign noting that the woods on the left were sometimes used as an outdoor classroom for children.
We came to another fork where the trail splits into a left fork that is horse/hiker friendly and a right cement path for bikers. We however saw bikers on the left fork dirt path and lots of off-leash dogs.
The left fork trail ran parallel to the creek and there were access points where people and their kids were playing in the creek.
Since Sam is pretty good about bikers/dogs/children we didn't mind this trail. We crossed a cement section.
We crossed a wooden bridge. There was a fence that divided the cement vs. dirt trail. We continued along the creek.
We reached the Bobolink trailhead in 45 minutes. The trailhead was packed. It would have been hard to fit a horse trailer without taking up most of the side of the parking lot.
|
Turning around we had some nice views of the mountain. Below: rejoining the main trail after taking the equestrian/hiker fork back to the main trail.
|
Pretty mountain views. Once we rejoined the main trail the foot traffic decreased. We did see at least 3 dogs off-leash.
It was really nice walking back looking at the mountains and soaking up the sunshine.
Rating
Difficult. The tunnel under S. Boulder Road was tricky. You really need to go at a low traffic time of day and be aware of bikers before you start into the tunnel. If you were not worried about the tunnel and went early on a weekday it would be an easy and wonderful trail!