The Rockies

So we made it through the Rockies and it was hard but it was actually a lot of fun. The views were amazing and we stopped and took tons of pictures which made the ride doable. The Rockies started on our day out of Boulder, with the Ward Climb. The Ward Climb is a 17 mile climb up into a tiny little town called Ward. It was the 4th of July and a Saturday, so there were TONS of other cyclists on the road, which is something we haven't had a lot of. It was a little demoralizing at times, though, because I was being passed by cyclists probably three times my age. Then again, until this point, my longest climb was in the Appalacians and was only about three miles long. So I took the climb slowly and it was pretty easy until about three miles from the top, when the grade suddenly became much steeper. But with frequent stops we made it. I never walked my bike at all, which is a huge improvement over the Appalacians. The town of Ward was interesting. There were a lot of hippies. We stuck around until their 4th of July Parade, which consisted of hippies on bikes and horses and a firetruck. Definitely an experience. Parts of the descent were pretty good but we ended up getting a lot of rain, which makes descents much more difficult. At one point the rain and fog was so bad that we had to pull off the road and take shelter underneath some awning. It was a good thing we stopped where we did, because it started to lightning really bad and there was no more shelter for miles. When the rain stopped, we ended the day with the most beautiful descent imaginable. We rode down seven fairly steep miles into Estes Park, Colorado. One of my teammates said the view we had is considered one of the best views in America, and I definitely believe it. Our stop was at the YMCA of the Rockies, where we were surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains. Pretty amazing.

The next day we rode over Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in America, at just over 12,000 feet. The morning started out tough. I was already tired from yesterday and really was not feeling 25 miles of climbing. But after the first water break, about 10 miles in, I was feeling much better. I took the climb really slowly and made stops whenever I wanted a photo. There were even more amazing views, which I can't really describe. I'll post pictures or something later. But there were lots of elk and lots of snow fields and even some elk playing in snow fields. Another interesting thing to note was the elevation. It definitely had an effect. Everyone felt a little light headed and it's definitely harder to breathe. Near the top, we had to stop pretty often to catch our breath. And going down, you could feel it becoming easier to breathe again.

The next couple days were easier. We're through the main part of the rockies although it is still very hilly. We've had a lot of long climbs, including a very steep three mile climb. We also played with some goats we found who had gotten out of their pen and had some more amazing views going into Glenwood Springs, where we biked through what seemed like a big colorful canyon.

I have to stop writing cause other people need the computer.