Team ride, lots of climbing - June 14, 2014

Racing season is starting to slow down.  Most of the road races are done for the year, and crits are becoming few and far between.  We're running into weekends when there are no races, or maybe it's a hill-climb or a time trial.  On the weekend of June 14, there were two races.  The Best on Hess time trial, which was actually my only race last year, and helped me decide I wanted to join a team, and the Sunshine Hill Climb on Sunday.  Although I liked the Best on Hess TT, I just wasn't really in the mood for it this year.  And I could have done Sunshine, but wasn't sure I wanted to pay for a race just to come in last place.  Apparently, many people on my team felt the same, and instead of racing we pulled together a really nice team ride.

We rode a bunch of roads I'd never ridden before, starting in Morrison, Colorado and heading south and west from there, up into the foothills.  From Morrison, we headed south through some beautiful foothills neighborhoods and a lot of houses I'll never be able to afford, until we got to Deer Creek Canyon.  Until this point, the ride was pleasantly rolling, but once we hit Deer Creek, it was just "up".  Then, instead of continuing on Deer Creek Canyon, we headed up High Grade and Pleasant Park Road, which involved a lot more climbing.  But there was a nice bonus, because at the top of the climb on Pleasant Park Road, you find the Pleasant Park School, built in 1894 and now on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties.  Currently operated by the Pleasant Park Grange, they offer a great rest stop for cyclists, with coolers full of cookies, water and Gatorade, and asking for donations.  It was a nice little pit stop after all that climbing.  We rested for a few minutes and fueled up before moving on.

Robert and Scott enjoying a break at the Pleasant Park School.

The Pleasant Park School was the highest point of the ride, so it was generally downhill from here, although we still had a little bit of climbing to do.  We did a little climb through a neighborhood, and then a whole lot of downhill, heading down to Turkey Creek Road and past Tiny Town, which I had heard of but never seen before.   Then we had to do a quick ride on US 285, which was interesting.  It's essentially riding on the highway, which was a little nerve-wracking.  From there, we took a left and headed up the last climb of the day, up Parmalee Gulch.  After another downhill, we ended up at Bear Creek Road, which takes you back down into Morrison.  A few of the group took another turn and headed up Kerr Gulch for some more climbing, but the rest of us, including me, just headed back downhill into Morrison and our waiting cars.

Peg and Troy

Robert

I'm still trying to get some confirmation, but the people that climbed up Kerr Gulch seemed to have ridding on I-70 as a part of their route, which seems insane.  I haven't seen any of those guys since then, so I am still waiting to find out.

All in all, a fun day of riding.  It's nice to get out into some new territory once in a while.