Time on the DaveandCallie blog does not move in a linear fashion. :) So, expect more blog entries from the past, but for now, this entry is from today - 5/26/14.
A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I did this ride but didn't take the camera. This time we were camera ready. We drove to a parking lot near Coot Lake on the north side of Boulder and prepped our bikes. Starting here avoids the madhouse of downtown Boulder which was worse than usual today as it was the Bolder Boulder. That madhouse should be avoided at ALL costs.
From the parking lot, we rode north to Carter Lake.
We stopped midway to grab a photo with Meeker and Long's Peaks in the background. We've had a ton of rain in town and lots of snow in the high country. The mountains show how much snow! Going to be a messy run off year as creeks are already over flowing. Look for lots of mud slide and more damaging flash floods to come. :/
We rode that approximately 25 miles up to Carter Lake. There is a bit of uphill to get to the damn. I'm standing on the damn taking the photo to the left. You can see the valley we rode up to get here.
Looking the other direction in the same spot - you can see why many people come up here. Boating and camping galore.
On the damn, the weather really started building. Looks like we were going to be running from the rain again. Cool clouds though.
We stopped at a little store at the top and had some tea and a snack.
Double-selfie!
We rode up to Carter Lake on the southern approach. We then headed downhill on the northern approach. It is steeper and shorter. We'd not ridden it before...that changed soon. :)
We headed down down down to find the road closed. There was a fatality accident or something quite bad that shut the road down. We decided to head west up the 'Bonus Hill' in hopes that when we returned, the road would be open. The "Bonus Hill" climbs 1,400' at the turn off below the north end of Carter Lake. It does this 1,400' in 4 miles. Some steep section there!
When we came down, the road was still closed, so back up to Carter Lake we went.
It was short but savage! And really fun. We stopped at the marina and got the most nutritious item in the store: a Monster Drink. :/
It was yummy!
Then we headed down from the lake racing the weather. It had been getting a bit nasty for a while. It was unclear if we'd luck out and go the 19 miles (from where this photo was taken) back to the car and stay dry.
The headwinds from the weather were awful (when going west). Mostly we dealt with cross-winds. *shakes fist in air*. Head winds slay me.
We saw tons of birds, including an adult Bald Eagle about 10' off the road. Lots of smushed snakes, squirrels and rabbits. We passed a ton of smelly horse farms (I am puzzled by them). And finally got back to the car having only been hit by about 6 rain drops each. Not sure how we managed that! In the end, I rode 60 miles - Dave ended up with about 64 as he circled back to see me several times. In total, Dave rode 3,600' uphill and I rode 3,200' uphill (with the weather, I turned back before the top of the bonus hill). Not sure the uphill, but it was a good amount. We'll be in good shape for the upcoming Bike Tour of Colorado!
No comments:
Post a Comment