Glorious climbs and 100 miles

Thursday, June 18   Day 12   Leadville to Winter Park, CO   101 miles

Almost 12,000 feet here at Loveland Pass! This was our fifth crossing of the Continental Divide, and our sixth would come later in the day. Earlier in the day, we rode over Fremont Pass at 11,318 ft, giving us three big climbs for the day over passes exceeding 11,000 ft. It was a long day - almost 7 hours of riding for me, and 10 hours out there total (so, about 3 hours of taking rest stops and lunch, and posing for photos like the one above).

Here's a shot from early in the day, beautiful as usual. The weather yesterday (I'm writing this the following morning) was excellent - sunny, not too cold or hot, although the final climb late in the day was getting pretty warm. That's Craig closest to the camera, and Bob on ahead.

I like this picture because it shows the road we have just been climbing as we departed Leadville. Not too steep just yet; later in this blog posting, I have similar photos when the climbs were much steeper.

During the first 15 miles or so, we came to this incredible scene (Clinton Gulch Reservoir). Love that reflection in the lake! You can tell from my wearing a wind breaker that the morning was brisk, but that jacket came off and I needed it only for the descents from the stratospheric passes we rode over. The snowy mountains in all my pictures confirm how beautiful our scenery has been here in Colorado.

This is Tenmile Creek at our first rest stop (mile 23), looking back at the valley we just rode through. We entered a bike trail right at this spot and got to ride next to this river for a long ways. This location is where we met up with Interstate 70, which we basically rode near AND ON for the next 47 miles.

This is our bike path and Tenmile Creek. Interstate 70 was just a hundred yards or so to the left as we paralleled it. I loved this section next to the rushing river. After a time, the path turned eastward, away from the interstate, and wound its way through a residential area (Frisco) and over a steep climb and then down to where we had another break before starting the long Loveland Pass climb. All along this part of the ride we had views of big lakes and reservoirs, but apparently I did not stop to take any photos.

Then at mile 38 we began our ascent of Loveland, and the photo above, from about one-fourth of the way up, shows how far we have come and how steep it was. We had a rest stop about half way up, at the Arapahoe Ski Area. As the road rose from there, I took this photo back toward the ski area.

Up, up and up about nine miles to the summit, and here comes our van:

 A gentleman took my photo at the summit, the one at the top of this posting, before I moved on. Prior to this trip, I had been concerned about how my body would handle the high altitudes. I can report that I and the others have not noticed anything significant. The one thing I have observed is when I drink from my water bottle - in the few seconds it takes to drink and swallow, I get amazing out of breath. I pant for many seconds as if I have just been sprinting.

I then descended, but stopped partway down to take this photo of the roadway farther down, Interstate 70, and the snow-covered mountains behind. My son Brian and I would have driven through here in 2001 on our way from home in Simi Valley, CA to Columbus where he was beginning his doctoral program in physics at Ohio State University.

Once I reached the bottom, our route took us right up onto the interstate. The mystery of the day was why the westbound lanes were blocked up and barely moving for the entire three hours we continued along it. This morning, Neil said he researched it and it was road construction. Riding on the shoulder of interstates has usually been okay, but the first mile or so here it was terrible. Piles of sand, holes, and rough surface forced me to ride very slowly. Then it cleared up for the remaining few miles before we departed and used a frontage road.

The frontage road was nice because there was no traffic and I was next to this rushing river for a long ways. Off in the distance you can see the trucks on the interstate.

 I came to this railway station for a tourist train that runs between here and Georgetown, farther east several miles.

As I rode on, I was able to see the train across the valley, tooting its horn as it went.

 I also got this photo of the train bridge over Clear Creek. From where was I taking these photos?

 From this bike path immediately adjacent to Interstate 70. You can see the line-up of traffic on the other side, which I mentioned previously.

 In a few more miles, I reached Georgetown, a Victorian village once known as the Silver Queen of the Rockies. The sign said that visitors in its day included Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, and brothel-keeper Mattie Silks.

 A little farther along was our lunch break, at 67 miles, and this scenic lake. We did have to wait awhile since the van arrived late, but it gave us extra rest to prepare for our final climb. When we finally enjoyed our homemade burrito meal, it was 3:15 and we still had 31 miles to go.

We then began our ascent of Berthaud Pass on Hwy 40, The National Road. It was exciting to know I was on U.S. Hwy 40 since I first rode on and learned about it in Indiana on my ride across the country in 07. It also crosses Ohio just north of Interstate 70, and I've ridden on it a few times there.

Once I'd ridden up some distance, I saw this view back of the valley I'd come through. It always give me a sense of accomplishment when I see scenes like this of how far I've ridden.

 Corey took this photo of me at the summit, our 6th crossing of the Continental Divide.

Corey also took this because it shows a beautiful view toward the north and the roadway I'd soon be descending on into Winter Park, 12 miles away.

Once in Winter Park, I missed the motel and had to circle back. This gave me a couple extra miles which put me over 100 miles for the day. I got to visit with Susan Long, Bob's wife, who will now join us and six others to continue with Segment 2. In about 30 minutes, the others arrived and we all got to congratulate each other on completing not only a long day, but our 12 days of Segment 1.

Paul hosted a champagne toast at dinner to celebrate these same accomplishments. It was a fine evening! Today is a welcomed day of rest. My massage was wonderful. Laundry. Fine-tuning the bike. Writing this blog (which I lost half of, and had to re-write).

Here is our route map and profile for tomorrow (Saturday): http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7849328
It will be 74 miles and about 3200 ft of climbing, which after all our climbing recently, will probably feel flat (haha).