Today I've had my first real taste of the mountains here and a tough workout for the legs. I left at 7:30am to meet John, leaving Kelv shunning his hangover in bed like a regretful one night stand. Today was John's birthday and every year he rides out the same number of miles as his age - this year 65 was on the clock.
In perfect blue skies we coasted up the plains north as far as Altona, then taking the road westwards up Left Hand Canyon. What follows is a 15 mile climb up to the old Goldrush settlement of Ward at just under 9,500 feet. 200m higher than the Galibier, this was the highest point I've been. The first of many by the look of things! Here's a map of todays birthday loop.
A coffee and a cookie set us on our way southwards on the Peak to Peak highway past the snow capped peaks of North Arapaho (13,508 feet) before dropping down into Nederland. What I've seen so far is awe-inspiring and I'm getting slightly excited about what the rest of the Rockies will be like. After a great lunch in Nederland we descended the 28 miles all the way down Boulder Canyon back home. A perfect ride and a great start to the trip.
This evening young Jammer arrived in a nuclear powered land monster resembling the Nimitz. I think its called a Suburban. You could start a war with this thing, seriously just looking at it gives me the fear. So thats to be home for James and most likely Kelv for the next week. Our aim is to hit Yellowstone by Saturday, a tough challenge as its over 600 miles from Boulder, but we have the Meat Fucker Mobile on our side.Tomorrow I'm setting off early, saying goodbye to Boulder and heading for Laramie about 110 miles north. Jammer and Kelv are heading up to the Peak-Peak highway in the armoured personnel carrier destined for Estes and the Rocky Mountain National Park before chasing me down and rendezvousing in Laramie. The panniers and all the rest of the shit will be in the truck all this week, so I'm gonna make a most of having the bike in race mode and get stuck into the miles between us and Yellowstone.
Tomorrow we reach Wyoming!
2 comments:
Surprised you made it out of Ward without joining some religious sect, we had a narrow escape while fixing a flat...
come on Kelv, get those wheels spinning, you have come too far :)
what's this with the truck? I thought you two were cycling all the way across? If I'd have know it involved sitting in a suburban I could have done it!
that photo of you sitting on the bonnet of the car is very scary bert.
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