Day 41: The Mile High Club

Colorado Springs, CO -> Denver, CO, 66.4m, 2974ft

Hi, hi! This might be the latest I’ve published a blog yet. Various other things were occupying my mind, things like leaking tires and the learning festival in Denver, and upcoming Hors Catégorie climbs, and going to the sauna… I’m sorry! Regardless, I still remember day 41, because it was one of my favourite cycling days and I have LOTS of pictures, so let’s get into it!

I started the morning by checking the crossword puzzles some people had done the previous night. I came to the conclusion I would most definitely have not been able to solve them, but crosswording is a skill I do wish to acquire. However, me and Ruth did some easier ones, such as a word scrabbler. But she soon headed out on her side quest of getting her hair done. The rest of us did not start the ride particularly early, but at some point I stopped thinking about it, because it should have been a pretty short, easy day – almost 67 miles and reasonable elevation with no major climbs. The views were incredible, truly, I was still filled with awe whenever I noticed the mountains in the distance, even though we had been seeing them for the past two days.

Getting out of Colorado Springs was kind of annoying, with its many traffic lights and watching for cars, but then we made it on the trails. The trails! New Santa Fe Trail, Greenland Trail, some city bike paths on the way, Plum Creek Trail, Daniels Park trails and then bike paths in Denver. Many trails. Some gravel, some paved, with nice turns, little hills here and there and great views of the fields and the mountains. I have way too many pictures and none of them do the scenery justice.

Somewhere in between those pictures was one of the best rest stops we have had, topped only by Buc-ee’s, maybe, it was a whole lake! While most people were paddleboarding or in boats, we feared not and got in the water. It was great!

But the adventures did not end there. Around mile 33 we found out that a road found on Ride with GPS does not exist in reality. Some of us, including me made the decision to continue on the highway, but others were determined to find the trail and instead went off road. So, while Tian, who had headed out first, was enjoying her boba at the next rest stop in Castle Rock, Greta, Charles and Ishaq were in some field, somewhere.

Anyway, after that we we were heading to a viewpoint in Daniels Park, which involved a short, but suspicious stretch of highway and then a category 3 climb. We got hit by a some slightly stormy weather, but it stopped raining before I got to the top. Tian mostly escaped the rain and Sarah hid to wait it out. But at the top we were greeted by some more incredible views.

With that we were heading into Denver. That was a combination of paved paths and crossing 6 lane streets (which truly scare me, there is almost no gaps!). At the end everyone successfully, although slowly had made it to Denver, where we were welcomed by Maud and Dave, had some great food, before getting ready for the learning festival the next day, examining our slowly leaking tires and going to sleep.

Uncharacteristically, I have no pictures of that. But this day with its adventure and a bit of chaos probably goes into my top 7 Spokes days so far. It was full of awe inspiring views, challenging in unexpected ways and I got to spend it with some great people. Could not ask for anything more.