Today was officially the last day of riding on our 9 day trip. We ate breakfast at 7am in the mall and then we had luggage load at 8am. After taking pictures of the group we had 2 options for the ride today. 1st option was to go directly to Glenwood Springs which was 50 miles or do a side trip to the Maroon Bells which would add another 20 miles to the day. 2 riders chose to go direct to Gleenwood and the other 12 decided to make the side trip.
Thursday when the side trip was being discussed, I told everyone that asked me that I probably would not do it. The climb up to the resort really wasted me and my legs were trashed. But with a fair nights sleep I elected to make the extra 20 mile loop with a 1500' climb in the 9.2 miles up to Maroon Bells. The group of 12 that made the extra loop stayed together until the turn off to start the upward trek. Then everyone once again climbed at their own pace. It started our to be a 1-3% climb and the road was winding before it began to go up the valley. Then it pitched up to 5-6% with spots going up to 7-9% for short distance.
Everyone made it to the top and took pictures. I was glad to have made the choice to see this as it was worth the trip. The only thing wrong was the weather did not cooperate as the top of the 3 peaks were surrounded by clouds. Well you can't control the weather and we all left for the terrific descent back down and into the town of Aspen. Once again everyone descends as their own pace and each one decides how much rick you want to take on the downhills. I have become much more cautious after doing over 50mph in Wyoming 2 years ago. I got up to 40 on this downhill and that was fast enough for me. While going down I saw numerous Rock Chucks and they were whistling to each other as we zoomed by. Then on the road I spotted some kind of a bird with little ones, when I got close I changed to the other side of the road as it was a mother Blue Grouse with 3 very small chicks. She was uherding then back off the road where they were all safe.
After everyone got to the bottom we regrouped and ate a snack and filled the bottles up for the 44 mile trip to Glenwood Springs via the Rio Grand Bike Path. This is a really nice path that was an old railroad bed that has been turned into a bike path and it runs all the way to Glenwood Springs.
The total climb today was 2898 ft. with the descent of 5732 ft., which meant that we had a really nice downhill all the way in. At noon we passed a town and stopped and got a sandwich and then were on our Way once again. The miles were going by fast and we could see the clouds building and it was go ing to rain and we had 8 miles to go. We started picking up the pace and were breaking the speed limit on the path which is 20mph and when I looked we were going 26.9 mph on the flats. Well we did not out run the storm and got caught in the rain with 2.5 miles to go. Everyone got in safely and a little wet, but with all the riding in the Mtns, and the chance of rain everyday at high elevation, we really lucked out and the weather gods were on our side this week.
After getting to the Hotel and showering, we had RAP at 445PM and then loaded our bikes in a horse trailer for their ride back to Boulder tomorrow and most of us are riding Amtrak back to Denver and then there will be cars at the depot to take us back to Boulder or Berthoud, where our cars were left.
It has really been a great week of riding with old friends and some new ones in the great state of Colorado. The views, scenery, wildlife and flowers are magnificent. This trip challenged me every day, but if you put your mind to it you can do anything.
Looking forward to coming back home, but will miss the cooler weather, but it will be nice to not have to get on the bike on Sat.
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