Bicycle Day always falls on April 19, the day when Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman experimented in 1943 with a drug he derived from ergot fungus. He was so dizzy and restless at his lab when he went home via bike, which he had to ride because of wartime restrictions on car use.
Hoffman documented how his field of vision began to curve and get distorted on his ride home, and how he felt like he was transitioning into death, leaving his family with no father. Sounds like a bad trip, but it's considered the world's first intoxicated experience on acid, and the start to the psychedelic movement that followed.
Colorado enjoys the fruits of the psychedelic movement today, with the decriminalized and therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms and a strong history of underground LSD labs. It's also a state that loves to bike and has trails that would complement a shrooms or acid microdose (or more, if you can handle it) perfectly, with colorful murals and wildflowers, sweeping, majestic views and quiet, isolated hills and groves.
Psychedelics and bicycling go together naturally in Colorado. Still, we would never recommend someone get on their bike while high on mushrooms or acid — but if you did decide to honor Hoffman's legendary trip on Bicycle Day by dosing on dos wheels, you should bring a friend and plenty of water, and take any other safety precautions needed to make sure you stay safe on these three colorful Colorado trails you can enjoy together:
Watch Murals Melt on the Cherry Creek Trail
For most people, acid or shrooms can take upwards of an hour to kick in after you take them. If you dosed at the right section of the Cherry Creek Trail and then ride toward downtown, the visual stimulation of psychedelics should kick in around the point where murals appear on the walls alongside the trail.Start your trip where the Cherry Creek Trail tangles with the High Line Canal near Hentzell Park (near the Aurora-Denver border). Depending on your pace and the "stuff," reality should start to feel different around the time you get to the Cherry Creek neighborhood, which is where colorful murals in yellow, purple, pink and other springtime colors start.
If you like visuals, hope that they start to change around Four Mile Historic Park, which usually has tall, colorful structures shaped like dragons, giant crabs, crystals, seaweed and vines that are visible from the trail. The structures look artistic and vibrant even during the day, but they light up at night, too.
Once you get to Confluence Park, turn around and enjoy the rest of your trip on the trail. If you started the bike ride in the afternoon, you should have the chance to get back to the Cherry Creek State Park in time to see the sunset behind the mountains and the Denver city skyline.
Escape the Noise on the Colorado Trail
The Cherry Creek Trail is one of the most popular biking trails in Colorado, and it doesn't take you out of Denver's urban setting. If you want peace and quiet, look for your closest access to the Colorado Trail, which is meant to showcase the unique, natural beauty of the state.The Colorado Trail goes from Denver to Durango, making it the longest trail in the state at more than 560 miles. Mushroom trips are often around six hours and acid trips can last up to twelve, so the trail provides plenty of time in pristine, untouched surroundings.
The trail has dozens of access points, so you can find the closest entry online and check the weather as the western part of the trail often has snow until the summer. You can drive or bike to the trailhead; once you start biking, you'll see some people during the first few miles. The deeper you go, the more isolated it gets, so the best time to dose would probably be right before setting off from the trailhead; that way, it should kick in once you're past most of the people.
Once the dose hits, it's time to really take in the sweeping views of the mountains, with patches of white, dark-green and a dusty-red from the snow, trees and rocks. Clouds glide overhead as aspen trees guard you with their knot-hole eyes. You might even see bighorn sheep and columbines, too, but not as much as when the weather is warmer.
The trail can be a bit challenging and steep in some parts, but it's well-maintained and nothing a good mountain bike can't handle — just be careful not to get lost around snow-covered parts.
Enter an Enchanted Forest on the High Line Canal Trail
The High Line Canal Trail is easy to access in the Denver metro area. One entrance to the 71-mile trail is particularly trippy, though: a tunnel under Hampden Avenue that starts at the south end of the Wellshire Golf Course.
When you come out from the other side of the tunnel, you'll see stone walls and a lush part of the High Line Canal trail. If you follow this south, the cottonwood trees come closer and closer, to the point that branches arch over the trail and shadow it while you meander around elegant houses.
For about three miles, the High Line Canal Trail feels like a green gateway to an enchanted world hidden in Denver. It's a small stretch, however, so take that into account when you're thinking about the right time for psychedelics.
The trail leads to fields and fewer trees, but there are also fewer people if you continue all the way to Chatfield State Park. If you'd rather have a bike ride with stops mixed in, the sections of the High Line Canal Trail south of Hampden Avenue lead to secluded spots where you can sit and watch water idle down the canal or wind brush through the trees.
