Just for kicks, I checked out the Tour Divide route from Frisco heading south. I cannot imagine ever riding as far as these amazing cyclists do (from Canada to the Mexican border - !!??) but it's fun to see part of the route here and there. Especially since I picked a beautiful day, not too warm or cold, plenty of sunshine, and gorgeous Colorado views.
Riding the bike path up from Frisco, well this is easy. Apparently I picked one of the easiest parts of the trail too. Maybe if it were like this the whole way, I'd consider it!
My first selfie while riding! Look John, solar :) And no, I will not be perfecting the art of selfies while riding, "one and done" is good enough.
Aspen bike. Taking a break at Breck to check on the status of the riders heading south. Hmm, looks like they might be coming up this climb to Boreas Pass a little later. I'll go ahead and get started. Too late to see any of the guys who left from Silverthorne this morning, though.
Finally on gravel, heading up the long, climbing road:
Lovely views in the direction of Quandary where I climbed with Tom recently:
Red rocks and blue sky:
A very large tank, and any excuse to get off the bike for a minute to take a picture:
Well, that was a very long, kind of tedious, but really good for training, climb up to the pass. It turns out it was built as a railroad grade, so the incline was constant, not too crazy, but never changing. That sure made it interesting. I was very glad to finally reach the top. How do those riders do this over and over? Amazing and inspiring.
Breaking all kinds of rules - "no parking", "do not block gate":
Requisite selfie with the bike on the Continental Divide:
Lovely flowers and snowy mountains:
I got all the way back down to Breckenridge without seeing a single TD rider. I stopped to check on their locations and almost immediately a woman turned up the street - it's Fay from New Zealand, way to go!
Followed soon by Garrett:
Lynne and Angela were back on their bikes as well:
Christian and Achim were riding together, I'm not sure who is who in the next 2 photos, but they were looking good starting their climb up toward Boreas:
That was seriously awesome, watching them all take off up the road. I saw another couple riders later hauling butt into Frisco, I believe it was Alexis and Dana, but they were going too fast to get a photo.
Good job riders!
Tom and I met up for another 14er hike, aiming for the top of Mount Bierstadt:
This time we were joined by Marcela, Tom's girlfriend, excellent! Here she is, coming out of the restroom, and here we are playing around with multiple selfie photos to capture the occasion:
Marcela getting psyched up to climb her first 14er:
Nice path up the side of the hill, looking for marmots:
More beautiful views - I promise I'll stop with the mountain porn soon (we're in North Dakota as I write this, for example):
Another hiker mentioned that Mountain of the Holy Cross actually has a snowy cross on it this year, apparently a rare thing in recent years. I tried to get a zoomed-in photo, so you can kind of see it on the horizon. Very cool!
Marcela doing great on the climb!
Celebration at the top, well done! Mount Evans in the background (where you can drive up):
Lunch with trail dogs:
A woman walked past carrying a bouquet of roses and I was like, "what's happening?" - her boyfriend brought some signs for a little show-and-tell, so we had to go watch:
Will you marry me? As someone who got married on top of a mountain, I'm all into this kind of creative proposal!
She said yes, yay!!!
Another form of celebration - a dog who got higher than anyone else that day on Bierstadt, too funny:
Beautiful wildflowers:
Soaking the feet in the cold water, Marcela enjoyed that part too:
Congratulations on your first 14er!
Finally, a hike with John :) We drove over to Golden Gate Canyon and climbed around on a couple trails to get a brief taste. The elusive John Beard on a trail, hello John!
Excellent trails, we need to come back and run around here some more:
Love the big rock formations:
Admiring the views:
Thank you, mountains!
This sign made us laugh just saying the name outloud:
Lots of Colorado training entertainment, super enjoyable couple of weeks.
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