RIDE LONG AND SMILE

After a delicious breakfast in Crested Butte I hit the road and made my way towards Cottonwood Pass (12,126 ft).  While riding up by Taylor Park Reservoir there were still signs of the U.S. Pro Challenge from a few weeks prior.  It provided a little extra incentive to push on. After a several hours of climbing I made it to the top of the pass.  The gravel road was in great shape and there was a surprising amount of traffic.    There were a few people that had something to say, but amazingly they were all positive. The paved road down the back of Cottonwood Pass to Beuna Vista was very inviting.  It was all downhill from here.  I covered the 19 miles to Buena Vista in just under 40 minutes (just shy of a 30 mph average)  Considering how long I was climbing I was hoping for a longer descent, but I'll take it. As I approached Buena Vista I came across this road that T'ed into the road I was on.  I wasn't sure where it went so I really wanted to chec

After loading up on a grocery store dinner of a chimichanga, banana, bagel with ham, bag of Cheetos, and bottle of Gatorade I figured I'd better get to camp.  I had 10 more miles of mostly climbing and the temp was dropping as fast as the sun. Overnight the temps dropped into the high 20's and I was a bit cold.  Once again a mouse came to visit in the middle of the night.  They must like bikes almost as much as I do! I woke in the morning to another beautiful day and was looking forward to enjoying the colorful ride back to Crested Butte for a warm breakfast.  The road back to CB followed nice little stream.  The morning light lit the aspens on fire! Stay tuned for my final segment of the trip.

 As I was climbing up towards Tin Cup Pass from St. Elmo the colors and mountains became more and more spectacular.  I kept wanting to stop and take pictures, but I also knew I had a long ways to go. After a few hours of climbing I reached the top of Tin Cup Pass at 12,154 ft.  Not bad considering I started the day at under 8,000 ft.  Overall it was a good climb and I only had to walk a couple of short sections due to the steepness and looseness of the road.  Even with my full load I was still able to out-climb a jeep!  The weather was perfect.  The top of the pass was like a wasteland.  It was a good thing I climbed Tin Cup from the south, because the north side was much more treacherous.  I had to walk down more than I had to walk up just to make sure I didn't toss myself into some sharp rocks.  It was very loose and rocky from all of the Jeep and four-wheeler traffic.  This picture was by no means the worst of it.  After descending for about an hour

The goal: Ride from Buena Vista 85 miles up and over these mountains to Crested Butte. The Chalk Cliffs were almost blinding to look at in the morning light.  The miles on the paved roads ticked by pretty quickly with beautiful scenery. The closer I got to St. Elmo, the more color there was in the trees.   St. Elmo is a cool little historical ghost town.  Stay tuned for the continuation of the ride!