Planned and unplanned vacations

First the bad news . . . On July 22, I was laid off from my job of the last sixteen years.  Obviously, this was quite a shock, and was going to require some adjustment of finances, at least in the short-term.  Fortunately, we had already made some decisions like quitting Lifetime Fitness and canceling our cable TV and home phone.  We also refinanced our mortgage, a process which we were still undergoing at the time.  (I am writing this over a month later.  I've been slacking on my blog.  So sue me.)

On a brighter note, this means some unexpected time off, which can be nice.  At the time, my son's football and daughter's soccer were just about to get started, which means lots of practices.  So, it looked like I was going to be acting as the family chauffeur.  It works out well, since if I was still working, I'd have to be leaving work early every day in order to get them to practices on time, which is stressful and annoying.

On another bright note, I had already had a vacation planned anyway.  After getting laid off on that Tuesday, I had one whole day off before my parents came into town and we were going to head up to the wonderful mountain town of Breckenridge for 5 days.  You might think of Breckenridge as a ski town, but it's fantastic in the summer, too.

After a crazy Wednesday of frantically running around getting last-minute birthday presents for my daughter and father before our vacation, and packing for our trip, I picked up my parents from the airport on Thursday morning.  My wife worked through Thursday morning, and when she came home, we packed up the car and hit the road to Breck.

Two years ago, my wife and I planned a few summer days in Breckenridge while the kids were visiting the grandparents in Ohio.  Then, two days before we were supposed to leave, I had a gall bladder attack that required it to be removed.  We still went to Breck, but it was a much different vacation than we had originally planned.  I was planning to get in all kinds of cycling, but ended up just barely being able to walk the whole time.

This year, I wanted to make up for that by packing in a lot of cycling.  It seemed kind of rude to take off biking every day while my parents were visiting, but I decided if I got up super-early every day, I could be out and back before everyone was even awake.  And that's pretty much exactly how it worked out.

Thursday:
Not much.  Unpacking, and getting settled into our condo.  We got a great 2-bedroom condo up on the mountain.  It was called the Tyra Summit.  I'd highly recommend it if you plan to spend any time in Breckenridge.

Friday:
As planned, I got up really early and hit the road.  I didn't venture too far.  Basically I stayed within town.  I had done a little research, and found the route for this year's USA Pro Challenge bike race, and their route through town.  I knew they did some tough climbs just before the finish of the Breckenridge stage, and I wanted to try them myself.  So, I basically planned to do a few laps of their in-town climbs.

It was certainly a chilly morning.  I was wearing my arm warmers, leg warmers, wind vest and long-fingered gloves.  I headed down to the main road, out to Boreas Pass Road, and started climbing.  When I got to the intersection with Moonstone Road, I headed downhill, which eventually takes you into the back of town.  Once I hit the main town roads again, I turned around and headed back up.  This climb back up to Boreas Pass Road is just plain brutal.  Short and very, very steep.  Once you think it's done, you come around a bend, and see more climbing.  Ugh.  Finally, you get to Boreas Pass Road, and an nice descent.  Once at the bottom, turn around and do it again.

After a couple laps of these climbs, I headed back to the condo where almost everyone was still sleeping.  Later that day, we headed up to the fun park on the mountain for some family fun on the alpine slide, Gold Runner Coaster, and more.

Getting ready to head down the alpine slide.

Saturday:
Once again, an early morning.  This morning, I decided to head up Hoosier Pass, topping out at 11,539 feet.  The climb isn't really that bad.  About 9 1/2 miles from Breckenridge to the pass, with grades from around 3-5%.  And then a long descent back into town.  That didn't seem like a long-enough ride for me, so once again I decided to do the steep hills on the back side of town to finish up the ride.  And back to the condo before everyone was awake.

Hoosier Pass, elev. 11,539 ft

Sunday:
On Sunday, the same routine: wake up early, get in a good ride, and get back before the rest of the family was awake.  This day, I decided to ride from Breck to Keystone, over Swan Mountain.  The ride starts by riding from Breckenridge to Frisco on the local recreation path.  At Frisco High School, you cross the road and start heading up Swan Mountain.

The crazy part about this ride, which I didn't realize before I started, was that Swan Mountain isn't the high point of the ride.  The high point is in Breckenridge.  Then it's a long, gradual descent into Frisco, and a short climb up Swan Mountain.  On the way back, you are climbing all the way to Breckenridge.  The climb of Swan Mountain is 450 feet of elevation over about a mile and a half.  The climb from the base of Swan Mountain back to the condo is about 800 feet over 7 miles.  It was weird, because the bike computer rarely even registered a grade, but I was definitely feeling it.  I couldn't understand why I was getting so tired from riding on a "flat" bike path.  I didn't realize until I looked at the ride on the computer that I was actually climbing that whole way back.

Looking towards the Tenmile Range from the Keystone side of Swan Mountain.

Monday: 
On Monday, I decided to do a repeat of my ride from Friday.  Just some laps of the hills on the backside of town.  But after I did a couple laps of that, I decided I wasn't quite done.  So, I headed up Hoosier Pass for a bit, until I decided I needed to get back to the condo.


All in all, this was a good vacation.  Lots of great family time, and a lot of fun in such a great town.  I'm also glad I got some time to get in some good rides while I was up there.  It was a nice change from riding around the Denver/Boulder area for a while.

Now, back home, and back to the realization that I don't actually have a job.  More on that later . . .

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.

Kerr Gulch - Squaw Pass, July 5, 2014

On July 4 weekend, I wanted to take the opportunity to get in some long rides.  It looked like some people from my team were going to be out riding, but I decided to try to get in some riding with some friends from work instead.  So, I sent out an email on Thursday to see if anyone was interested, but only got a couple responses.  A structural engineer that I work with was hoping to do a ride on Saturday, and a coworker wanted to ride on Sunday.  I decided to do both.

On Saturday, I met Heath Stein from Structural Consultants, Inc,. in Morrison, Colorado for a long climb up some of the roads in his neck of the woods.  We would be riding from Morrison, Colorado up to Squaw Pass, near the entrance station to Mt. Evans.  About 30 miles uphill, and 30 miles back down, with about 6,000 feet of climbing.  Heath lives nearby in Lakewood, and rode his bike to the parking lot where we decided to meet.  My day started off on a low note, as I dropped my phone while getting out of the car, shattering the screen.  But once we were riding, I forgot all about it.

The ride started up Bear Creek Canyon.  The road was a little busy, with limited shoulder.  So, it was single-file for a few miles.  We then took a right, and headed up Kerr Gulch.  This was a great road.  After about a half-mile of rougher asphalt, the road smoothed out and became a great quiet ride for miles and miles.  After a final steep climb up towards Evergreen, we took a left and followed Evergreen Parkway for about a mile or so.  This road is very busy, but there is a wide shoulder most of the way.  Then, a right turn takes us onto Squaw Pass Road for the rest of the climb.

Squaw Pass Road is fantastic.  I really can't wait to ride it again.  The road is smooth, with a big, fat bike lane the entire way up.  Everyone else seems to know this, too, because there are a lot of bikes on the road.  This seems to be a very popular route.

The view along Squaw Pass Road.

About 2 miles from the top of Squaw Pass, Heath got a flat tire.  We stopped for a few minutes to put on a new tube, and then finished our climb.

We then turned around, and headed back down on one of the most enjoyable downhills I've ever done.  It's a steady grade, not too steep, and the turns are mostly pretty wide.  You really don't have to pedal or hit your brakes.  Even better, the entire downhill is marked as "Bicycles have use of entire lane".  Awesome.  We quickly made it back down to Evergreen, and then onto Kerr Gulch.  From there, we rode down to Bear Creek Canyon for the homestretch.  Unfortunately, about 2 miles from the finish, I hit a rock and got a flat tire.  After a little break to patch a tube, we finished the ride and got back to my car.

I felt amazingly good after that much climbing.  I'm not sure how ready I was going to be for another tough ride the next day, though.  Sounds like I was a little better than Heath, though, who later told me he crashed on his couch when he got home.

My son's first mountain bike ride - Teller Lake Trail, June 29, 2014

My kids have been riding bikes since they were about 3 years old or so.  We typically just ride around the neighborhood or occasionally ride on the Platte River Trail.  My son asked me "Dad?  Do I have a mountain bike?"  He really didn't know.  I told him it was a mountain bike.  A few days later, he told me he wanted to go mountain biking.  It must have occurred to him that since he had a mountain bike, he should go mountain biking.

I told him I'd love to take him mountain biking, but I needed to find a good trail.  I pulled out Mountain Biking Denver and Boulder, which I hadn't looked at in years, and started browsing for easy rides.  And I actually ended up with a ride I'd already done a few years ago.  There were a few other decent options in the book, but they all seemed to require paying for parking, which was annoying.

I decided to ride the Teller Lake Trail, which starts just off Arapahoe Road in Boulder.  The first half of the ride is basically flat packed gravel, and the second half is a combination of single-track and double-track with some moderate hills.  With this being my son's first time off-pavement, I thought we could at least ride the flat easy stuff, then ride the single- and double-track until he got tired, and then we could just turn around and go back.  The overall out-and-back distance is 12.2 miles, which is pretty close to the farthest he's ever ridden.

We covered the first part of the trail easily, stopping to pet some horses and talk to some cows.  After crossing Valmont Rd., the trail becomes single track.  He handled the narrower trail just fine.  Then we hit a tricky spot, somewhat unexpectedly.  I've ridden this trail a few times before, but it's been a while.  We came across a stream crossing that I don't think is supposed to be there.  I believe this is new, a result of a massive flooding back in September 2013.  There is actually a bridge over a stream just down the trail, but it appears a pond broke through its banks and created this second crossing.  The water wasn't deep, but the bottom was covered in loose rocks.  I went first, so I could turn around and get a photo of him crossing.  I made it through, although it was a little sketchy.  He followed, but only made it about halfway across before he had to stop and walk.  His shoes got wet, but otherwise he was fine.  We soldiered on.

Shortly after this, we hit the first of our hills and some fun single-track.  He is finally starting to understand the gears on his bike, and how to shift, and why.  He got into his lowest gear and made his way up the hill really well.  He had to stop once in a while, but after taking a break to catch his breath, he got right back on and kept pedaling.  What a trooper.  The trail continued on like this for a while, a couple ups and a couple downs, through single- and double-track, until the last climb up to the water tower at the top of the trail.  We took a little snack and drink break, then turned around and headed back the way we came.

I'm really proud of him!  He did awesome, way better than I expected.  I knew he could do it, but I just thought his brain might call it quits before his legs did.  But he pushed on, and made it the whole way, like a champ.  He loved it, and now I need to look around for more trails for us to do.

Here is a collection of photos from the day:

A few horses near the beginning of the trail.

Lookin' cool.

Stream crossing.

A little bit of uphill.

Mt. Evans - June 28, 2014

On June 28, Josh from my team decided to do a training ride up Mt. Evans, to help get ready for the Bob Cook Memorial Mt. Evans Hill Climb.  The race is on July 26, and I'll be on vacation at the time, so I won't be able to participate.  But I've always wanted to climb Mt. Evans anyway, so I decided to go.

Mt. Evans is one of Colorado's fourteeners, mountains with summits over 14,000 in altitude.  I used to think there were 54 of them in Colorado, but recently heard there are 58.  I guess it depends on how they are counted.  Anyway, the Mt. Evans road also happens to be the highest paved road in the United States.  The road extends to a small parking lot just below the 14,130' summit.  I'd driven the road a few times before, since it's a popular spot to take visitors to Colorado, but I'd never hiked or biked to the summit.

We started our ride in Idaho Springs, just off I-70 at about 7,500'.  Although it was supposed to be a "team" ride, the only Zillas attending were me and Josh.  We also had a couple other racers along for the ride, Michael (Cat 4) and Tyler (Cat 3).

We headed out from the parking lot at about 8:30am to begin the long slog to the summit.  The route to the summit is about 28 miles, basically all uphill.  There are a couple very short sections of downhill, but not much.  The first 6 or 7 miles has a pretty steady grade of about 2-3%.  Past that, the grade increases to about 4-6% for the rest of the ride.

About 13 miles in, you come to Echo Lake and then the Mt. Evans entrance station, at about elevation 10,750'.  After passing through the entrance station, you climb a little more to the Mt. Goliath Natural Area, where you can walk among 1,000 bristlecone pines.  The hardy trees exist right at treeline, the boundary between the forest below and tundra above.  After passing through this area, you then make a left turn and come face-to-face with the beauty of the Colorado mountains.  Unfortunately, you also come face-to-face with the wind.  From here until the summit, you are above treeline and exposed to sun, wind, rain, hail, or whatever Mother Nature wants to throw at you.  It's amazing the difference that one left turn can make.

At this point, Josh started to feel kind of crappy.  The altitude was getting to him, and he just didn't have the strength to go on.  Michael and Tyler had already ridden ahead, so I chatted with Josh for a few minutes, and he said he was turning around.  We told each other to be safe, and I went on ahead while he turned around and started to head back down.

Josh, just before turning around for the day.  He's giving me a thumb's up, but I don't think he really means it.

The great views you get once you're above treeline.

After riding a few more miles, and enjoying the great views in every direction, you finally get a nice little downhill to Summit Lake.  Then it's time to go up again.  It's really not that much further to the summit, but by this time, the altitude really starts to take its toll, and it's a long slog to the finish.  After a couple miles, you make a left turn and the summit finally comes into view in the distance, and it just seems so far away.  It's really disheartening to see how much further you still have to go.  The observatory at the summit just sits there taunting you for the rest of the ride.  Maybe some people will look at it and it will help them drive to the finish.  But to me, it just makes you think about how much climbing you have left to go.

End of June, and still some really deep snow up here.

The altitude was really starting to get to me, and I started to think I couldn't do it.  I was cold and hungry, and just didn't know if I had the energy to get to the top.  But I was so close.  I stopped to take a couple breaks, eating and drinking, and giving my legs a break.  There are a bunch of tight switchbacks just before the summit, and I had to ride into a strong headwind.  Even when the wind was blasting me as I tried to climb, I talked myself into pushing ahead, knowing that when I turned up ahead, I would have a strong tailwind.  That really kept me going, looking forward to the upcoming tailwind.  A little below the summit, I ran into Michael and Tyler on their way down.  They had gotten to the summit parking lot, stuck around for about a minute, and turned right around.  They were both really cold, and just wanted to get back down the mountain.  I told them I was going to get myself to the summit, and would see them back in town soon.


After a couple more switchbacks, I finally got to the parking lot.  Then, even though I was cold and tired, I decided that there was no way I was riding this far and not actually going to the summit.  From the parking lot, it's about a 5-minute walk up a bunch of rocks to get to the actual summit of Mt. Evans.  I put on my wind/rain jacket, put some rubber cleat covers on my shoes, and started walking.  I hung around the summit for a couple minutes to take some pictures, then headed back down to my bike.

14,116 feet.  7,094' of elevation gain to the parking lot.  Ignore that temperature reading.  That thing has never worked right from the day I got this computer.

View from the summit.

USGS marker on the summit.

Happy to be done climbing for the day.

Usually, after a long, long climb, the downhill makes up for all the pain of ascending.  That's not really true for Mt. Evans.  The descent off Mt. Evans is miserable.  The road is in terrible shape.  There are cracks, bumps and potholes everywhere.  Going up, you're going so slow that you don't even notice.  But on the way down, at high speed and a cold, tired body, you feel every bump.  The edge of the road just kind of falls away down the mountain, and there are some enormous potholes that could just swallow a bike.  Truthfully, I think it's really dangerous, and I was very uncomfortable and nervous for most of the descent.  The wind was terrible, the temperature was about 30-35 degrees at the summit, and I didn't have much in the way of warm clothes.  I could barely feel my fingers, and every bump in the road seemed to rattle my entire body.  I was swearing to myself pretty much the entire descent.

Back down at the entrance station, the weather is warmer, and the road is smooth all the way back to Idaho Springs.  Unfortunately, by that time, I was so miserable, I couldn't even enjoy it.  I just wanted to be done.

I got back to the car, changed my clothes and texted the guys to find out where they were.  They were already sitting down at the Main Street Restaurant.  I headed over to relax with some food and beer.  The best way to end a tough ride.

Deer Trail Road Race, June 21, 2014

The Deer Trail Road Race was scheduled for April 27.  Unfortunately, as the date neared, the weather started taking a turn for the worse.  Finally, with really nasty weather on the horizon, they postponed the race indefinitely.  I assumed it was just going to be canceled and we'd never hear about it again.  That seems to be what happens.  Sometimes you check the race calendar, and something is just canceled without warning, and the promoters say to stay tuned for an update, and that's it.  Which is too bad, because there aren't a ton of road races out here, so every cancellation hurts.  With various races all over the state happening nearly every weekend, there isn't a whole lot of room to reschedule without overlapping someone else's race.

But then something fortuitous happened.  The Tour of Westcliffe on June 21 was supposed to be the Jr. and Sr. Road Race State Championships.  But then it was suddenly canceled.  Sounds like some sponsors backed out or something.  Canceling a random race is one thing, but you can't just cancel the state championships.  Luckily, the Deer Trail promoters were still trying to find an open weekend when they could have their race, and now a date just opened up.  The Junior Road Race Championship had already been rescheduled to a different race, so the Deer Trail Road Race was rescheduled to June 21 and became the Senior Road Race Championship.  Since I'm an old fart, this didn't really matter to me.  I'm in the Masters category now.  So this was just another road race for me.

The race was about 42 miles, in an L-shape along two roads.  At the north end and east end of the course, you actually do a 180-degree u-turn around a cone, and head back the other way.  Kind of crazy, so I was interested to see how it played out.  The course was somewhat narrow rolling country roads out in the farmland east of Denver.  Parking was at the local rodeo grounds, advertising that they hosted the World's First Rodeo.

We had a neutral start right in the town of Deer Trail, quickly heading under the highway and out onto the open roads.  For some reason, the race seemed to be moving pretty slowly for a while.  I was anywhere from the middle to the back of the pack as we leisurely made our way down the road.  The pace picked up a bit as we closed in on the first u-turn.  Stuck at the back of the pack, I could only watch as the leaders eased around the cone and took off again, while the rest of us came to a near dead-stop at the traffic jam.  Eventually, we were all around the cone, and catching back up to the leaders.

After about another 15 miles or so, we closed in on the next u-turn.  Not wanting to get left behind again, I sprinted up the inside, making my way to the front of the pack.  I was probably 3rd or 4th around the cone, and in a good position.  One rider started to make his way off the front of the pack, but nothing to worry about.  But then one of his teammates took off, joining him off the front.  It was only a 2-man breakaway, but with two members of the same team.  I don't know a ton about racing, but I know that a breakaway with two team members can be dangerous, so I decided to chase them down.  I didn't have any grand designs on winning this race, so I figured I could expend a little energy.  I got out of the saddle and pulled up behind the breakaway.  We ended up riding like that for a couple minutes, before the guys gave up and the pack came up around us.  I don't know that I actually did anything, but it felt like I did, so I was happy.

After killing myself to catch the break, I was running out of gas, and the main field slowly passed me until I was hanging on the back.  I relaxed a bit and ate a gel to try to make sure I had fuel for the end of the race.  We turned to head east again, and I was still hanging off the back, slowly getting dropped.  At that point, I joined one other racer to try to get back in the race.  After a bit of effort, we were back on the tail end of the pack.

At some point, we had to weave around a mysterious piece of junk in the road.  We didn't see what it was, but it was right in the middle of the pack.  A few minutes later, we found out what is was, when we saw a guy riding without his saddle.  Talking to him later, he said it was loose while he was sitting on it, so he stood up to mess with it a little bit, and it fell right off.  He ended up riding the last 10 miles or so without a saddle, standing for most of it and occasionally gingerly sitting on the top of his seatpost.  It didn't sound like a lot of fun, but he finished.  A pretty ingenious way to shave a few ounces off his bike, too.

Anyway, after expending that much energy catching back up to the group, I just barely had enough left to hang on the back.  As we made our way around the last cone of the race, I was on the back again, and was stuck in traffic.  The leaders took off, and the rest of us struggled to try to stay with them.  But they were long gone.  In the end, I finished about 90 seconds behind the winners, in 29th place out of 56 racers.  But my teammate Keith ended up sprinting for the win, so it was a good result nonetheless.  Chalk up another win for Psimet Zilla Racing.

And that looks like my last race for a while.  There are a couple races in July, but nothing I'm particularly interested in.  I may do a crit on July 13, but not sure yet.  There's a 3-day race in Salida, but I'm not planning to do that.  And I'm going to be on vacation for the Mt. Evans Hill Climb, so I'll have to skip that, too.  There are a couple races in August, but not many.  But the season is really winding down.

Keith Collins on the top of the podium.  Sorry for the blurry picture.  Not sure why they did the podiums in a dark barn instead of outside in the sun.

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.