The Rockies!!!

Unfortunately I'm in a public library and do not have sufficient privileges to install devices and upload pictures into my blog. And what glorious pictures I have of Colorado... But I'll have to share them all with you later!

5Jul08 - Colorado Springs to Buena Vista - 103 miles
Sweep Day with Samuel and perhaps my most miserable ride. :-( At the beginning of the ride, Samuel asked if I'm a climber. I had to inform him that I am perhaps the slowest climber on the trip. (I continue to blame the 16 years I've lived in Florida!) Since Samuel is perhaps the fastest climber on the trip, I had the inevitable guilty feeling all day because he had to stay with me at the back of the pack. But, enough depressing storytelling! The day started with a ride through the Garden of the Gods, these beautiful rock formations with a nice road that goes right through. Plenty of bikers around and one birder who was going to let us look through his scope to see a rare find, but it flew overhead just as he lowered the scope for me. I don't remember much about the middle of the day except that there was a lot of climbing and I was in pain. It started to get a little stormy before second lunch, and we hid in the van until around 4:30. Luckily the last 15 miles into Buena Vista were an incredible descent, and we arrived just in time for dinner and shower at the host site. I passed out early on a very comfortable couch (one of the perks of being sweep!)

6Jul08 - Buena Vista to Gunnison - 85 miles
Another rough day on me. We climbed about 4000 feet to the Continental Divide = Monarch Pass = 11,318 feet! It was FREEZING up there! I had to keep stopping because I simply could not breathe, and Suz and Travis (who were on Sweep duty) kept catching up to me. They eventually stopped to have a snowball fight (yeah, there was snow up there!) and met up at the rest stop on the top of the pass. Angela had hot chocolate waiting for us... delicious! The rest of the ride wasn't so bad, and I was very excited to get into Gunnison. It's the only town on the trip that I've visited before, and it was really cool to be back where I went "into town" every week last year to take a break from doing research up in the mountains. We stayed in the high school, and I got pizza with Devon and Hannah.

7Jul08 - Gunnison to Ouray - 102 miles
Glorious day! One of my favorite days! We went though the Blue Mesa Reservoir which was one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen. Though it was a long day with three pretty good climbs, they were each only about 1000 feet, which was a good length. Suz and I would take them somewhat slower than most, but we had set out early and stayed ahead of most of the pack. And each climb was ended with my new favorite sign!! (wish I could post the picture of the sign with the truck facing downhill; it says "TRUCKS USE LOWER GEAR; STEEP GRADE NEXT 4 MILES") Yay for awesome descents! First lunch stop was looking out at an incredible lake surrounded by mountains. And Ouray itself was a pretty amazing town. Got ice cream and couldn't stop staring at all the mountains... When we talked to people in town and told them we were going to Durango, they laughed at us. Perhaps not the best sign.

8Jul08 - Ouray to Durango - 70 miles
Another awesome ride! Despite their laughter, we all finished the ride even though it included three mountain passes. The first was about 4000 feet up to 11,018 feet total. It took several hours, haha. And it was super super cold at first, since we set out early. The descent was kind of cold and not that fun. But the views... I can't quite get over the magnitude of the Rockies. There is also this smell which I'm not sure whether to describe as snowy mountain air, or just heaven. On the second climb which was less than 2000 feet but the steepest grade, I started to lose it when I looked down and was going 3.3 mph. But then... I spotted a fat yellow-bellied marmot on a rock near the side of the road! Since I studied them all last summer, I was very excited. Put down my bike, ran over to take a picture and check out the burrow, and found a litter of pups! Got a picture of one of them too. Then I was pumped, knocked out the rest of the climb, awesome descent, killed the third climb, and had my favorite descent of the trip (reaching a new top speed of 43.6 mph!) Finished the ride with Suz, Scott Shapiro and Dennis and we got Thin Mint Blizzards at Dairy Queen. Delicious! Unfortunately we also saw a local girl get into a bike accident near the drive thru, but we provided some first aid and she was ok.

10Jul08 - Durango to Cortez - 45 miles
Hooray for short days! We could've added 40 miles round-trip to go to Mesa Verde National Park, which might've been well worth it. But my legs enjoy a short day every now and then... There was some climbing but after that the ride was fairly easy and fun. Yet another stop at a Dairy Queen for yet another Thin Mint Blizzard. Awesome. Today was our last full riding day in Colorado!