CnC: Getting High in the Rockies

My turn to lead again today. We had a cool start again. But again, it soon warmed up. Only 30 miles down the road, in fairly heavy traffic we came to Aspen. First glimpse of the affluence in this place was the large number of private jets parked at the airport.

Then in to the town and it was quite pretty, well maintained and manicured, and whilst very green at the moment, would look really good with a coat of snow.

The ski runs can be seen from the main street, where we found Paradise Bakery, after getting directions from a town manicurist. He'd probably be called a garbo anywhere else.

Coffee and a warm cinnamon bun went down well, the only problem being the outside chairs had no table. Hard to balance a coffee of the lap whilst devouring a warm sticky bun. I guess even Paradise isn't perfect.

back on the road, we once again broke an altitude record, making 12,095 ft above sea level at Independence Pass. Probably the highest we will be on this holiday (with feet still on the ground) and probably as high as I want to be. Breathing doesn't do much good up there - there's practically no oxygen. Those of us with reduced lung capacity from past smoking had big trouble just walking the short scenic walk.

Down the other side I was a very good boy, sitting right on the 30mph speed limit. Guess who was sitting on my rear all the way. Yep, the local sheriff. Well at least it took the heat off Ken.

Whilst at the top, Charleen need to go to a loo. They were setting up some porta-loos, but they were going to take a while. So off we went. Well, of course everything happened. We had the sheriff making us slow, the road was quite irregular in parts making for the occasional suspension squashing bump, we were running beside a rushing river and there were no towns or parks in sight and with cliffs on one side and river on the other, no real place for a girl to go.

Ever compassionate, I kept riding so she could see and hear the river although I did try to avoid the bumps - really I did.

She was almost screaming in pain when we finally came upon a town and I missed the public loo. A quick U-turn and ride right up to it - only to find the cleaner was busy doing his thing.

He was nice enough to step out and let her in - along with a few others in our party.

More nice riding followed as the area opened up on to open range country, bare fields ringed by distant snow-speckled mountains. Nice. We stopped at a small town (six building in total) diner/bar for lunch. Some nice burgers with fresh-cut chips - skin-on. That filled us up.

Not too long from our destination was the turn-off to Pikes Peak. It was an in-and-out route to the hill climb but Ken and Bob were a bit tired and opted to carry on to the motel.

We tackled the climb, but I piked (on Pikes Peak - get it?) when the road turned to gravel. I managed a few hundred metres, but the first major corner looked too much for my abilities on this bike - and there was six miles of twisty dirt road ahead. Discretion was called for. Discretion was a U-turn.

We made it to the hotel and after settling in we all went to a nearby diner adjoining a truck parking area for some bowls of chilli. Too full after those lunchtime burgers for a full meal.

Another great day on the road.

We even took some pictures:-