Wednesday, September 29, 2010

On the road again . . .biking in Colorado



One of the nagging questions that I wonder about, and that comes up now that the cross country ride is over is "Are you still riding your bike?"

Yes -- very much so.  In fact, Glenn D., a fellow cross-country rider who lives in the Denver area, lent me a classic red De Bernardi bicycle that he has kept up in great shape.  It was a state-of-the-art bike 20 years ago but with his exceptional care it was great fun to ride.  And, as it is a more traditional road bike instead of my normal touring bike (Jamis Aurora Elite) it was fun to shave off another 10 pounds of weight for climbing the hills in Colorado.

My wife, Cindy, and I were out on a retreat for about eight days but for seven of the eight days I slipped out for a few hours to climb the hills around Vail.   I was glad to get at least three "signature" rides of going up the Vail Pass (10,600 feet) twice and then a very challenging ride of riding through the town of Minturn and up and down Battle Mountain Pass (9200 feet) and returning to Vail.    The altitude and the grade of the hills were all wonderful flashbacks to our cross country trip.



Cindy rented a bike as well and we tooled around some of the bike paths together.   Most of the rides I'm going on since returning are much, much shorter than our cross country trip.   But, I'm enjoying them tremendously and they all give me warm memories of our nine weeks on the road.   Still, simply to ride for a bit with Cindy was something that we couldn't do for several months.  And, the mountains and colors of Vail were simply spectacular.   I saw so much of the country going from Seattle to Boston but when we arrived in Colorado I fell in love with the mountains.  


Once the cross country ride  finished we had a 10 day "bike free" vacation on the east coast and then came home to Minnesota.  On average I think I'm riding about five days a week since I've been home.  The Colorado ride was great to get some climbing legs back for a week.  Coming home to the short hills of Minnesota was great fun to see how much better and smoother I am climbing.  It's not that the hills aren't still hard -- but I have so much more confidence going up them and I keep thinking how short they are compared to these ones in Colorado or what we saw in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.   

I tooled around the lakes in Minnesota today and enjoyed a few hours out back on my own bike.  My sabbatical is coming to an end and I'm already starting to think about how far I can ride into the fall and winter.   Was up late last night looking at winter bike riding websites!


 


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