Colorado: Cycling Days

We've been in Colorado for 10 days now, 7 of which were biking days. We started off going to Lamar, CO. The second we crossed the Colorado state border, everyone was psyched. This was a state most of us were looking forward to, and right away the grass was greener and there air cleaner. Eastern Colorado was a lot of farm land, ranches, and wildlife preservation areas. There was no sign of mountains though Rocky Ford, but when we reached Chico Basin Ranch just north of Pueblo, CO, we began to see them. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the range at the ranch, and the next day headed to Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs was an interesting place in that it was a gigantic urban sprawl. From the 1980s to today, the population had increased from 50,000 to 600,000 permanent residents. You can imagine how many new developments popped up from that. We were fortunate to enjoy an evening in the mountains hosted by some Habitat for Humanity folks at their home. They taught us all about hawks and falcons, and actually had some of their own as pets which they used to hunt with. We ate well too, with a BBQ complete with brats, burgers, salads, and klondike bars. We were able to explore downtown and the Olympic training center, which were some of the more enjoyable parts of the city.

After Colorado Springs, we hit some tough cycling days. We climbed over three passes and 104 miles into Buena Vista, the highest of which was Wilkerson, at 9507 feet.We were fortunate to have a rest from our bikes and build the following day. Our next ride was into Gunnison. The ride had a challenging 15 mile climb up to Monarch Pass. This was the highest elevation of our trip, at 11321 feet. Everyone waited at the visitors center for the whole group, at which time we celebrated with a dance party in the parking lot, a group photo, and a gondola ride up to 12000 feet where we had a 360 view of all the peaks surrounding us. There was even snow at the top - YUP, snow on JULY 1st! - that we enjoyed playing with.  Afterward, there was a fun 40 mile decent/rolling downhill ride where I averaged 17 mph, and had a max speed of 41mph.


The next two days were more climbing. Our ride into Ridgeway was a 92 mile day, through rolling hills, beautiful canyons, and by gorgeous river rapids and lakes and creeks. There was a lot of climbing, although we only went though one pass which was a little over 9000 feet, called Chero Pass. We met a young lady who was doing a mountain biking tour of Colorado passes. Overall, we began seeing a lot more cyclists on the road.

Yesterday, we biked 80 miles on the "Million Dollar Highway," of US 550. We climbed over three passes, one which was 13 miles up, the next 7, and the last 3. The 13 mile climb was the most beautiful, with a great view of red mountains, snow covered mountains, and cliffs. At some points, the edge of the road was also the edge of the mountain, and there were no guardrails. In other words, we had to hold up RVs and jeeps while we biked in the middle of the lane until it was safe to pass. Aside from the fact that it's ranked in the top 10 most dangerous roads, it was absolutely gorgeous!


Steve and I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast outside of Durango to bring in our day off and celebrate  my birthday. We had great views and a cozy king size bed, and slept for 12 hours! We're now in downtown Durango and will be heading out soon to celebrate the Fourth.