Our fourth day riding was a long one. This day was slated to have the most elevation gain on Kebler Pass (9,996' in elevation) - and it did...in the worst conditions possible! This is a dirt/gravel pass which makes it less desirable on a road bike. Road bikes generally have 23 mm of rubber touching the road so hitting dirt/gravel can easily mean a wipe out.
Little did anyone recognize that the Colorado Dept of Transportation has dumped 30+miles of new loose gravel, and three section of giant trap rock on this pass. It was epic. Lots of crashes. Way more flats (many had multiple flats meaning they could no longer fix them as they were out of tubes). Sag carnage was huge.
Happy to say that we both made it with no flats. I broke a personal record on average slow speed however - 8.5mph for the day! Ha! On top of all of this, the pass has some steep sections - several 10%+ sections. Lots of travel so much of the travel was in a cloud of dirt/dust. And it was hot. While we both successfully completed this leg, we were in strong agreement that we'd never do it again!
Because it looked like the weather may be bad at the pass, there are few pictures on the actual ride (left the camera in the duffel and took only a few cell photos). Here is Dave at the rest area - still not at the pass. It was beautiful here! The flowers were going off!
A few from the rest station.
It was hot!
Aid station.
Hanging out
Just a few of the fields of flowers on this ride. Beautiful!
After arriving to town, we headed to a little restaurant for a snack, and a marg, and a beer. While sitting here, we finally got the official word (it had been unofficial for some time) that I was promoted to Full Professor.
I can certainly get behind a celebration to never have to deal with promotion again!
We did manage to get back to camp before it rained, and storm after our snack. While in the tent, the big winds kicked up again. Another big wind took over the porta potties! Happily it doesn't appear anyone was in them. You can see some people standing them up again.
Sunset was nice!
The next day was a rest day! Crested Butte is a great little city so we were happy to get to rest here. We looked up our friends - Parry and Bob - to connect. We met them on last year's BTC. They didn't ride last year, but lived here so we made plans to meet them for dinner this evening.
On a side note...anyone who knows me, knows my beloved sequined flip flops. I bought them post foot surgery so my fat swollen feet could fit into something. I was annoyed at how expensive they were at the time. I got my money's worth! These shoes has done some epic hiking and been a lot of great places.
That all ended in Crested Butte. I finally wore through the toe portion. No way to save these shoes. We had to walk to town (me bare-footed) to buy some new ordinary flip flops for me. Boo.
We headed over to Parry and Bob's that afternoon. They've spent a large portion of their adult life in Alaska and Bob is a super accomplishment fisherman.
Parry and Bob with the bear.
The view from their home is nothing short of spectacular.
We hiked up behind their home a short distance to Long Lake. It was spectacular!
At dinner also was another couple who were visiting from California. It was a fun evening!
Nice views
Lupines blooming all over the place.
Enjoying the scenery
Photos!
More photos
And even more!
One cluster of Lupine (no you TX readers, there are not Bluebonnets).
After hiking back to their house, we all enjoyed dinner.
Callie and Bob
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