Too much fun and hard biking work makes me a very sloppy blogging hen. After a warm up and anti jet-lagging treatment in Laramie for Maria, we left for our road trip last Sunday. Our first intended stop was Silverthorne, where I and Martin had seen some pretty terrific mountains. We came there only to find that all those mountains were in “wilderness” areas, a.k.a. “KEEP OUT YOU DAMN BIKERS”. Dang. So we went on to Breckenridge, and found a nice fourteener to climb.
Didn’t occur to us that dragging a semi jet lagged person who just popped up from sea level, up to 14000 feet above sea level perhaps isn’t the nicest, or smartest, thing to do… Especially during a thunderstorm…I am truly amazed by Maria’s stubborness and strength.
Although we never got to the summit of Mount Bross (thunder and lightning is not the best companions on a summit attempt), and although we didn’t get to ride down the trail we had planned, the ride was still plenty fun. The old mining roads offered a severly fast ride down on loose rocks, and the hail that kept bouncing off our helmets added a bit of spice to our descent. In addition, we found a really rocky trail not marked on the map further down on the mountain. Wohoo!
On Tuesday, we rode the Colorado trail from Breckenridge to Tiger Rd. Most of the trail is super smooth and to be honest a bit boring, but the downhill towards Tiger Rd is awesome. I tried my very best to keep up with Maria, jumping the rocks she jumped and not squeezing my breaks to hard. It is so great to have a girl to push you onward!
Unfortunately, our own pushing and the cold nights in Breckenridge pushed Maria’s feet a bit too hard. So instead of making another try for the summit of Mt Bros, we decided to leave for warmer weather in Glennwood springs.
Warm weather we wished for, and warm weather we got. It was steaming as we rolled into town. The motels all looked like crap and was expensive like shit, so we decided to flee the heat and drive down towards Carbondale and find a camp site. Tough luck, they were all full. With just a hint of desperation drizzling on our necks, we stepped into Ajax bike shop in Carbondale to ask for advice, and there, there we met Linden: “Are you bikers? I was gonna suggest that you camp in my backyard”.
Yep, that is America for ya. Splendid. A camping spot by the river in Glenwood springs, with access to the cutest cabin in the Rockies, and to the company of two of the most awesome people in Colorado and their dogs, is not the worst thing a girl can hope for. That one of these awesome folks also is a bad ass biker who knows all the trails in the surrounding didn’t make things worse. Of course, we fell in love. AND! Oh, I nearly forgot. The first night we heard some noises, like someone was tossing around big things on the street, and we heard Linden shouting something at someone. We were already tucked down in our sleeping bags so we didnt go out to see what was happening. The next day, we got to know that a bear had been going through the trash. It came back the next night too. For me, who is just a liiiittle bit nuts about animals (and completely naive), this was of course a WEEEEE! moment.
We rode a number of great trails with fantastic views in the Glenwood Springs area. Midsummer eve was celebrated by riding No name trail into No name village (its true, it is really called that, no name is no the map!). It took us 4.5 hours to climb to the top of the trail (a climb of about 4000 ft), and about 2 hours to descend. Not many people ride No name, so in addition to all the rocks and roots, our main challenge was finding the trail it self. Perfect in other words :). We ended the tour with a swim in the Colorado river, some Prosecco and of course, burgers with our lovely hosts. Then, I fell a sleep, a wreck as usual.
On our last day in Glenwood springs, me and Martin headed off to our biggest adventure on a bike so far, biking the highest mountain in Colorado, Mount Elbert. It was a totally fantastic, and equally tiring experience. I think it deserves a blog post by itself, so I’ll leave that for later.
After nearly a week in Glenwood, it was time to head south west to Telluride. Although T-ride has been the goal of the entire trip, I felt really sad to leave Linden, Danyelle, Scratch and all the other animals. We feel extremely priviliged to have had the opportunity to get to know such awesome folks. Thanks a billion for everything!
I’ve nicked a lot of the above photos from Martin. Thanks for letting me use them!
