Goodbye Colorado

Sunday unfortunately Py had to return to the Island and say Goodbye to Colorado. But he did a little last excursion on his way back to I-70 and stopped on top of Loveland Pass to enjoy a little hike to the summit (one of the peaks towards I-70) and the early morning sun opted for some photography. Enjoy!



PS: added GPS data links and maps for posts below!

Chilln' at River Run

Saturday morning could have been a great time for a ride, but Py was too tiered from last days late and exhausting ride. Got up at 7:50 or so... undecided what to do. He could have called the shop he got the nice road bike by 10am earliest to find out that it may be available -- as some one else was expected to get it by 10 -- a little chance only that he will not. But to know by 10am and be ready to roll at about 11am would have been to late, as bad weather was expected to move in very soon... A MTB loop some where? May be try out some Up-The-Lift&Down-The-Hill ride? Still undecided. Watching the Tour on Versus. TT stage going on today.

Making some breakfast in his room. Getting late. He walked out just chilln and looking around at Keystone River Run -- checking out some of the shops and Bike Rental options...

Still undecided, getting a Coffee -- this woke him up a bit. Time approaching noon. Looking at the lift and bike haul ticket window... 30 bucks a day, not too bad.
It was quit some traffic out there on the trail. Hmmm.

After having a sandwich he figured the rental for the real DH stuff and ticket would come to a total of at least $130. And he was late, as there was no bike left for rental also until 3pm.

Well, the late run option was there, but soon it started heavily raining with strong winds and some thunder. So he decided to go for early dinner and just chill out...

Here some lazy watching only impressions:



And some random riders flying...



Not to bad, one day off, a bit vacation of it all.

Frisco - Copper - Fremont Pass - Leadville

Friday afternoon -- all sessions done for the last day -- Py got ready for a late start ride.
In Frisco he rented a road bike, this time a nice one, a Trek Madonne/Ultegra. The shop guy was goofing a while around getting the SPD pedals somewhat useful adjusted...

However, at about 2pm Py got on the road, a few stops to fine tune the seat post height and finally moving towards Copper on a very nice and scenic Bike Path. In Copper he missed first a turn and needed to back track a mile... then heading up on HWY91 Scenic Byway to Fremont Pass. A long 6..7% climb, a few rollers on top before reaching the pass top itself. Scary looking clouds all around sitting in the mountains. Typical Rockies.
Soaring downhill towards Leadville was a bit slowed by a strong head wind. The run down was flattening out very gentle and it seamed to take for ever, no Leadville in sight. Py was running low on fuel, as he used up all the stuff already in previous rides -- and today he only had one scoop left for one bottle, plain water in the other and only took one Cliff bar along -- he was too distracted at the bike shop getting finally out there... he did not eat sufficient before as well, no time. That sucks now, he was running little short on time, as he need to be back by 6pm at the shop where he left some of his stuff and the car key. But he also need some food and only Leadville was coming up, the return by now would have been with no more food -- no good. So he speeded up more. Some houses, but no village. Finally a little climb and on top a gas station in sight, that gave him some energy... And a little Stop & Save ?!?!? shop, he got in, grabbed some Cliff Bars -- yes they had some -- and a cup of Coffee. Very good. A little in hurry now, he had about 1h40 left to return and it took about 2h20 (total time) to get where is was, but he was a little higher up and once back on top of the pass it should be all down hill -- very cool.
No time to be lost any longer, still more scary clouds... but dry so far. A quick estimate, he was on km 55 at 3100m and had to back track in less than 1h40, the Pass top was at only 3440m plus a few rollers -- should be doable.

Refreshed he took off flying down the little hill top of Leadville. A little tail wind helped flying though the flat to low incline long section before the final climb of about 300m. The road got wet and a strong cross wind with little rain set in, it got nasty cold but good he was climbing by now generating enough heat. Just fearing the long fast downhill in the wet. But magically just at the top flat section the rain stopped and the road was dry, the clouds were sitting on his right in a different valley now. He was only little wet and dried off just in time for the downhill.

What good luck. He was flying towards Copper with 60...80km/h on a pretty good and only gentle curved road for miles (HWY91 is rated 50mph) -- awesome average of about 50km/h over 20km distance. That made up some good time. Back in Copper heading toward the Bike Path to Frisco he clocked 20 minutes to deadline, that should work. A few drops of rain, but just a few. The bike path was almost free of any traffic, so he could fly it down to Frisco. Just a few slow zigzag turns in Frisco to get back -- at 2 minutes to 6pm he got back to the shop. Perfect timing.

Pretty much exhausted by now... looking for a good place to eat. He followed the advise of the shop guy and went to Tuscato at Main St., Frisco. A great choice and ride today.




View Larger Map

Frisco via Swan Mtn Rd to Loveland Pass

Just did Frisco - Swan Mtn Rd - Keystone - Loveland Pass. Base elevation is at about 8800ft, Loveland Pass 12000ft -- a 9mi steady 6..7% climb at high altitude -- I clocked in about 53mi / 4300ft climbing / 3h20.

A nice ride from the Bike shop in Frisco with the same bike Py had on Sunday. A gentle climb via Swan Mtn road with a great overlook of Lake Dillon. Shooting down to road and gentle up again on a great bike path to Keystone. Then a road sign said 9mi to Loveland Pass, beeing at about 9000ft. Just keeping the pace down and HR at about 165..170.... the only disturbing issue, heave big truck traffic he did not liked so much. Especially the ride down, he got stuck behind a bunch of trucks :-( And had to slow down. However, the first 1/2 of the decent was great.
Back via Swan Rd to Frisco, this time taking one more great bike path to Frisco he missed on the way out.

Great ride and good free afternoon :-)


View Larger Map

Frisco High Trails to Ute Pass

One more Early Birds replacement ride, a 55mi ride at high altitudes between about 8,300ft and 9,800ft in soaring sun under crystal clear sky in the high 90ties.




See here for details: Frisco to Ute Pass.

Montezuma Loop -- Rough High Altitude Workout

Again off the Island, and playing high up in the Rocky Mountains, starting today in Montezuma, Colorado, close to Keystone.

Ride started at 10,300 ft and peaked at 12,615 ft with a few very very steep up and downs at highest altitude on very coarse rocky jeep trails -- a few section to steep to ride for Py, so a few tough hike the bike sections came up... the downhill was great, even more rough, several water xings and all doable even on the simple hard tail MTB Py rented, as the Fullys were pretty heavy and had not so good components and mechanical badly working brakes only. The K2 did a good job -- no complains for only twenty eight bucks a day.



Simple, hard, efficient - great day.

Later Py figured a place to rent a road bike in Frisco, got some good early dinner to refuel -- Chinese Noodle Chicken in Dillon -- did some shopping.

Topo Map:

View Larger Map

3D view from Google Earth:

Gold Coast Ride 2008

1st Sunday, back on the Island since a couple of Sundays, PyZahl did skipped the Early Birds again, but he did the annual Gold Coast Ride.

At about 5:30 he rode 15min to M. to carpool out to Greenlawn, Huntigton. They got there quickly at about 6:45, M needed to register, Py just picked up his armband and Teeshirt :-)

At 7:30 some of the birds and other well known riders assembled to a pretty nice big group of about 20..25 or so... Py did not counted 'em all. Here a few shortly before they rolled out -- all together until the "2nd" big water stop -- not counting the very first one where was absolutely no need to stop after just a couple of miles -- only for the leisure rides...



Py did a lot, if not almost all pulling out to this stop over all the rollers... feeling funny little after some more climbing.



Here the 70milers went off back, and Py went with a smaller group of 6..8 for the 100mi and added an extra loop and then they returned to this stop after a couple of extra miles once more... and made there way back after that. The highest elevation Py noticed was just little over 120m.

Statistics:

Good workout today.

The 4th Annual Deerfield Dirt Road Randonée (D2R2) will be held on August 23, 2008

Attn. to all Py's blog readers and bike friends... he is looking for more buddies to join this special event and challenge, do not be shy, do it!


Here is all the information about it.

http://www.franklinlandtrust.org/randonee.htm

http:/http://newhorizonsbikes.com/page.cfm?pageID=347/newhorizonsbikes.com/page.cfm?pageID=347

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?EventID=6263

Allegheny Reservoir - Kinzua Bay

This long 4th of July Weekend Py went on a long road trip all the way up to the Northern Philadelphia, Allegheny Reservoir and Kinzua Bay, he geared up for some MTB and Camping.



As there was a very heavy rain and flooding on his day of arrival, trails were mostly turned into a sticky muddy mess and due to good trail keeping... they decided to stay on dirt and other back roads. He did not took his road bike, so the big Humwee was the only choice. The weather changed to very nice the next days. The roads would have been great for a road bike ride as well but the Humwee work on road for sure, just a little extra workout! And Py had some fun, giving a couple of roadies on a longer uphill a hard time and finally left them far behind -- on his MTB......... o-)

Here some views to the Big Bend:





And at Rim Rock:



After some good riding on that heavy bike, a little cool down and cross work out:



Still, a little teaser of the trails...

Review Lincoln East

Here is an article from Bicycle Mag, as Py recently realized they were writing about the Lincoln Gap:


Click for readable size: