Mt. Evans, again . . . July 6, 2014

After a long day of climbing on Saturday, I was convinced to ride Mt. Evans again on Sunday.  This time I rode with Brian Patty from work.  After my description of the ride from the weekend before, he decided he really wanted to do this climb.  I wanted to get in another good ride, so I decided I could give it another shot.

I already explained the entire route in my description of last weekend's ride, so I won't go into the whole thing again.  It's the same ride.

The weather was probably about 10 degrees warmer, which at the summit is still pretty damn cold.  Brian did great, beating me to the summit by a couple minutes.  But he kept riding while I stopped for a bathroom break at Summit Lake, and I just couldn't catch back up to him.

Just like the previous weekend, I was getting disheartened toward the end.  Once you make that turn and finally see the summit, it just looks so far away.  The only thing that really kept me going this time was the fact that Brian was up ahead and I didn't have a way to tell him I wanted to turn around.  Closer to the summit, we were on adjacent switchbacks, and he was actually directly above me on the road.  We stopped, and I yelled up to him that I thought I might turn around, and not to wait for me.  I had already been to the summit, so doing it again wasn't really going to prove anything.  But after resting for a couple minutes, and getting some food and water, I hopped on the bike and just kept slowly pedaling.  I'm not sure why I kept going up instead of down, but that's what happened, and I made it to the parking lot a short time later.

This time, although the climb itself was the same, I was a little better prepared.  I had brought my wind vest, long-finger gloves and shoe covers, all of which I left at home the previous weekend.  I was definitely thankful I had them this time.  Although the ride back down certainly wasn't "enjoyable", at least it was a little more tolerable.  I still think that downhill is ridiculous and dangerous, and I have no desire to do it again any time soon.

That was certainly a long weekend of climbing, and I decided I'd skip the bike-commute to work on Monday and just take my car.  My legs and butt could use the break.

Near the Mt. Goliath Natural Area, looking down on Echo Lake.  Just above treeline.

At the summit parking lot.