head for the hills

On Thursday, August 4, I drove to Colorado for another Colorado Rocky Mountain Bike Tour. As long as I was in the neighborhood, I thought I would do a short ride up the last one of the seventeen highest paved passes in Colorado that I had not yet done, Hoosier Pass, south of Breckenridge. I had planned to ride up the south side, but after driving it I thought that the climb looked more interesting from the north. And once at the top, you could still enjoy the views of Park County to the south. So after spending the night in Frisco, I drove to south of Blue River, found a place to park, and headed for 11,539 feet.

After the short climb and nice descent I was on my way to Grand Junction. I pitched my tent in the James R Robb Colorado River Sate Park in Fruita, just a couple miles from the west entrance to the Colorado National Monument. You could see the monument from my campsite.

I got a call that afternoon from Bud from Bluefield, West Virginia, who also wanted to ride in the monument on Saturday morning. We met at the west entrance and rode about 20 miles of the 23 mile-long Rim Rock Drive. In order for Bud to make his late checkout, we then turned around and rode back the way we came.

It was only about 50+ miles of riding the first couple days, but after the ride we went to check in with the tour, and over the next several days we would average more than 80 miles a day, and get in plenty of climbing. Plenty of climbing! I could hardly wait.