Day 48,49

Lighting up Colorado

Miles biked 86

65

Hello from Montrose, Colorado! While climbing up a Gondola at the top of Monarch Pass, I took out my camera......pointed it to the ski area.....and snapped. Unknowing what I had captured I looked down at my camera.....hit the review button.....and the picture above is what I saw!(I chuckled like a school girl for an hour in joy) After my horrible luck with losing my wallet and losing my camera case with my passport and new digital camera....it was all worth it to get such amazing luck with this PICTURE. I love Colorado!

Day 48 was a tough one. It was so tough I had memories of the pain in my legs from Johnstown PA (although not quite that bad). The day before the Yalies made the decision to climb as high as they could up Mt. Yale. Mt. Yale is a peak over 14,000 feet. They climbed for about 3 miles before getting pelted with sleet and hail and turning around. There are plenty of Ivy peaks.....Mt. Harvard......Mt. Princeton.....my dad even says there is a Mt. Columbia. They haven't found a peak high enough to name Mt. Quinnipiac yet.

Day 48 seemed to start well....we went downhill. Only problem with going downhill.....you have to then go uphill. Our climb started from somewhere around 7,000 feet and didn't end until we hit the top of the Monarch pass at 11,312. I was climbing at my usual turtle pace a few miles from the top when I heard the clear Kentucky accent of Francis flying from behind...."I'm coming for you Big Poppie!" Francis then whipped by with Andrea on his back wheel. The site of a tall lanky Kentuckian with a bright red beard passing me was enough to make me laugh and forget about the pain in my chest and legs to get me to the top. Upon arriving at the top we ran into the dumbest cross country bikers. They were two kids who left from just north of Boston....had no helmets.....no bike clothes....and were smoking cigarettes. Amazingly I've run into these kids about 3 times in the last two days, not sure how they have made it this far.

On the top of Monarch pass a few of us took a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain (where I captured my picture). The view was amazing, and it was fun to see the road we had climbed up. The way to Gunnison was mostly all downhill which made the remaining 40 miles a little easier. Our host was the Gunnison High School Gym. I am happy to say I drank a Fat Tire Beer in the gym.....which means I get to cross off "drink a beer in high school" of my life things to do. At 4am, Sam was awoken by the Gunnison Police...since he was sleeping near the door. Apparently they thought he was free loading in the gym, and had to convince the officer that he was not alone, and there were 21 other creepy college students sleeping in the gym.

Today's ride was amazing as it took us through some very cool Canyons. We also lost 3,000 feet of elevation which made for some good opportunities to make the Dignified 5-0 CLUB!

The 5-0 club is a group of elite riders who have hit the very difficult 50MPH on those tiny wheels on their road bikes. Before today it had just 2 riders (Corey 50.8 and Sam 50.3). It has always been on many of our minds to try and reach the club, but the conditions have to be just right. You need a long hill, no head wind, steep grade, and minimal curves. We had two descents today. The first one was about 5 miles long where Pat jumped out, flew down the mountain, and joined the club at 50.3. I on the other hand got stuck behind a wide load truck that was going down the mountain at 27MPH. I am happy to say I started my own club "Passing two trucks, one being a Wide Load" and cruised the second half of the hill over 40. When we came into lunch Pat and Andy (who hit 50.2) were boasting their new speed.....which I think got the speedsters thinking about the CLUB (including me). Right after lunch we climbed 4 miles.....and a downhill sign awaited us.....I pedalled as fast as I could as I winded down the mountain and just came up short of the club at 49.5MPH......but there were notable speeds!

-Corey pushed the record to 51.3MPH

-Pat then crushed that record with a performance of 52.8

-Sam then came down with the NEW RECORD at 53.0 MPH!

-Steven and Colin joined the club with 52 and 51MPH respectively.

I've decided I'll take life over hitting 50MPH.....but if the opportunity looks right.....I think I'll make a charge for the club!

So today's ride almost looked like something out of an old Western Movie. Pat thought John Wayne was going to show up and just start shooting things. Corey, Emma, Beth, and Andy took a detour to climb a rock wall face. I had more fun sitting at the bottom yelling "echo, echo" and hearing the sound come back. I believe we are officially out of the Rockies, although they are looming in the distance. I'm not sure what the terrain looks like to the West.....but we are one day from being done with Colorado and then we arrive in MOAB UTAH.......holy crap we've biked a long way. According to Pat's Odometer 2,895 miles.

Hope all is well at home....heard there were some Tornadoes (which pissed off the weather loving members of HBC who couldn't believe CT got Tornadoes but not Kansas). Time to check out Montrose.