What can I say, we are simply not morning people… No big shock to those of you that know us I would guess :-) After waking up at about 9, we ate a quick breakfast and packed up. Off to Pike's Peak! I did not get to go up this last time I was here because it was raining so much, they had closed it. Weather was nice this morning, so no problem. Once to the entrance gate, we were shocked to find out that they wanted twenty bucks just to ride up to the top!! That is more than it cost for a week's admission to Yellowstone… Anyway, what could we do. $20 lighter, we headed up. I imaging most of you are at least familiar with Pike's Peak. I'm not entirely sure how it got so famous, but one of the big things is that there is a car race up it once a year. After riding up and back, all I can say is those guys are nuts! Talk about dropoffs, this is a dirt road with no guardrails, and some of the corners drop so far, I couldn’t see where you would land! It was pretty amazing, and a wonderful view. I'm not sure if it's really worth twenty bucks, but it was neat. We did some more fishing at one of the lakes on the way down, and in all spent four hours on the hill (between riding up and down, fishing and hanging out at the top).
Back into Woodland Park, we stopped at a small grill for lunch. It was about 3 pm by now, and we were quite hungry! After getting food and gas, we headed out west (for the first time this trip, sniff sniff…) on hwy 24. After about 20 minutes of riding in an intense downpour, the sky lightened up and we had a great ride. For the most part, the road was straight as an arrow, but the sky and mountains in the distance were incredible. Pulling into Buena Vista, I could see we were about to encounter another storm, so I pulled into a coffee shop for a break. We have found that it is good to grab a break every hour or so anyway, to avoid getting too sore or tired. After a great cup of coffee (well, sort of coffee. With enough milk and chocolate, even I like the stuff…) we plugged back in the vests and headed into the storm. Another half hour or so of rain, and we hit the junction of hwy 82 to head towards Aspen and Glenwood Springs. The rain had just about stopped, and we started looking for a campground. We ended up getting a wonderful site right on the river (the campground was technically full, but the camp host let us stay there anyway, very nice man!). Since we were out of food, and had not bothered to stop at a store on the way in, we just had some breakfast bars and marshmallows for dinner. Since we didn’t eat lunch till 3:30, it was fine.
It's another super cold night, the fire was just put out, and it's now time to cuddle up for some warmth.
Good night,
david.
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