After the flooding week, a very cool (and well-received) presentation at the university on some research my colleague Lynn and I completed, and a whirlwind trip to DC where some of us from the National Academies briefed the Hill on another report we worked on (also well-received), I got home, hopped in the car and we headed to Grand Junction.
Dave made reservations at a B&B in Grand Junction for by birthday weekend. If we wanted to get outside to play, it had to be on the western slope - stuff is still a mess at home!
The B&B sits atop a hill in Grand Junction. Beautiful home with beautiful views. When we arrived, it was cold and windy. This turned into a gorgeous red and stormy evening. The rest of the weekend was perfect.
This is the view from our room looking toward the Colorado National Monument.
Saturday we suited up and rode the Tour of the Moon. This is a ride made famous (I'm told) in the movie American Flyer. It travels up to the top of the monument, around the rim, and back down. It was my 49th birthday and the ride was 49 miles. Perfect.
It started off a bit cool, but that didn't last long. Really the temps were perfect for the ride.
Dave rode this once before about 7 years ago. It was my first.
After leaving the B&B, the ride moves up. And up. And up.
Here's a cool photo of the uphill section with some neat switch-backs. That little speck that is me offers some perspective of the area and views.
Still heading up!
There are several over views here. We stopped at many and enjoyed the view. For a part of the ride, you can see Otto's Route which is a fun climb. There are past blog posts of us on this climb.
We made a side trip up to Glade Park, Colorado. It offered about 10 additional miles and additional elevation gain.
Glade Park is a tiny (and I mean TINY) little town.
When we arrived, the store (the only store) was closed for lunch!
As you can see, the store had been there for more than 100 years.
We headed back down to the rim and stopped for the photo op at the high point of the ride. Yeah, it's not a tremendously high ride, but it is quite spectacular.
Zoom!
Group selfie. :)
You can see Independence Monument just to the left of Dave. This is the tower where Otto's Route is.
On the way home, we stopped to point out the B&B. Great location.
Day two, we headed into the monument to do some climbing. I was the belayer while Dave climbed. These were not climbs that my feet were anxious to be abused on. :) It was quite a bit hotter than expected. We cooked!
This climb is rated 5.8 which is quite the joke. That sort of a rating is irresponsible for new leaders. It'd get them hurt. Dave danced up it as usual.
Another climb - the best of the day it seemed to me - had Dave up a face, moving into the right-facing corner and up under this arch. Pretty climb.
From my belay stance, I could watch a herd of 20 big horn sheep just below us. Pretty day and a great place. Although we were here only for the weekend, it seemed longer. It was a perfect b'day weekend and much needed after way too hectic weeks before!
