Steve and I started at the Y camp again, behind the Sweet Memorial building again. Here are a couple of pictures of Steve getting prepared to ride.
Like yesterday, we headed down Highway 66 toward Estes and rode through town. However, instead of going right at Highway 36 and then right again at Highway 7, we stayed straight and got onto Highway 34. After a short climb to get out of Estes Park, we had a VERY nice, long downhill ride. It must have been 15 miles of descending! It was incredible! I’ve got a lot of shots of this part of the ride. Here are a few:
Riding view of the climb out of Estes Park. I thought the mountain was pretty against the blue sky. You can’t see much of the climb, but it was only about half a mile and not steep at all.
Here’s a shot of the road climbing out of Estes Park.
Steve was in front of me, so I got him in the shot.
Here’s part of the descent from Estes toward the Glenhaven turn-off.
This photo captures the winding road as it travels next to a river bed.
We’re still descending here.
This one is also part of the descent from Estes Park.
I love the curves in the road.
Not too sharp, and definitely conducive to high speed!
Once we hit the bottom of the descent on Highway 34, we turned off at a sign that pointed us to Glenhaven. I can’t remember what road it was, but I do have a couple of pictures of us on that road. It was pretty much a steady climb up into Glenhaven from the turn-off. There was less shade and more pasture land, too. Here are a couple of the photos:
This is just past the turn-off. You can see the slight uphill nature of the climb. It was very pleasant! It's obviously still a mountainous area, but look at the large open grassland area to the right of the picture. We're definitely in a valley here.
These two pictures were taken as we road up the road to Glenhaven. We were going relatively easy, so we took turns snapping photos of each other.
Here’s Steve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and, here’s me.
There was a great sign on the road and I can’t believe I forgot to snap a picture of it. Steve told me as we turned onto the road that we might encounter cattle on the road. Although we didn’t see any, we rode past one house that had a big sign on the front fence that read: "Cows Not Mine!" I guess the guy was tired of folks stopping by to tell him "his" cows were in the road! Funny stuff.
Anyway . . . we eventually made it to Glenhaven. Here’s a picture Steve snapped of me after we passed through. I stopped for a pose:
About a mile and a half past Glenhaven is a helluva climb! It can’t be more than 3/4 of a mile to a mile long, but it’s SUPER steep and has two switchbacks. Since I was on my Colnago, I had an 11-23 cassette for this climb. OMG!! That was hard. I was dying for a bail-out gear, but with a 39-tooth small chainring and a 23-tooth "granny" gear, I wasn’t getting any relief. I had meant to buy a 12-27 cassette before this ride, but I forgot. I wanted to get off the bike and walk up that hill SOOOOOO badly, but my ego wouldn’t let me do it. I ground it out at 5 mph or less until I finally made it up. Oh, my legs and lungs hurt so bad after that, but I made it!! I have a picture of the hill, but it’s on a camera that hasn’t been used up yet, so I’ll have to post it later.
After that big climb, the rest of the ride back into Estes Park was pretty much all downhill. Good thing, too, because my legs were TOAST for the rest of the day. Steve and I rode back into Estes Park and then made the short trek back up to the Y camp where we drove back to Broadview. We got back at around 9:15 AM or so. We had a little breakfast, chatted with Lisa, Laura, Shauna, and Matt, and then agreed to watch the boys while the girls went on a hike, and Matt went down to the Y camp to use the internet to do some work.
I crashed for about an hour and a half at about 10:30 AM. Sorry to leave Steve to watch the twins alone, but I was beat! Almost 120 miles in 2 days was a big strain on my legs, especially with all the sustained climbing we did yesterday and the steep hill we did today.
At noon, after I got up and had some lunch, Steve and I just hung out with the twins and the dogs and didn’t do much of anything! Matt came back in the early afternoon with some Tour de France news, but other than that . . . not much else until dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was our eating out experience. We had 5:30 PM reservations at the Dunraven Inn. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t eat so early, but Shauna and (possibly) Matt will be hiking Longs Peak tomorrow, and we need to be back home early. So, we loaded up and drove down to the Inn for a nice Italian meal.
Here’s a picture of Lisa and me in the car on the way to the Inn. Its doesn’t have a lot of significance other than we thought it turned out pretty nicely considering Lisa held the camera out in front of us and just snapped the picture.
Here are two pictures of us (individually) standing by the Dunraven Inn sign.
And, finally, a picture of Steve holding Duck at the table inside.
Riding view of the climb out of Estes Park. I thought the mountain was pretty against the blue sky. You can’t see much of the climb, but it was only about half a mile and not steep at all.
Here’s a shot of the road climbing out of Estes Park.Steve was in front of me, so I got him in the shot.
Here’s part of the descent from Estes toward the Glenhaven turn-off.
This photo captures the winding road as it travels next to a river bed.We’re still descending here.
This one is also part of the descent from Estes Park.I love the curves in the road.
Not too sharp, and definitely conducive to high speed!
Once we hit the bottom of the descent on Highway 34, we turned off at a sign that pointed us to Glenhaven. I can’t remember what road it was, but I do have a couple of pictures of us on that road. It was pretty much a steady climb up into Glenhaven from the turn-off. There was less shade and more pasture land, too. Here are a couple of the photos:
This is just past the turn-off. You can see the slight uphill nature of the climb. It was very pleasant! It's obviously still a mountainous area, but look at the large open grassland area to the right of the picture. We're definitely in a valley here.These two pictures were taken as we road up the road to Glenhaven. We were going relatively easy, so we took turns snapping photos of each other.
Here’s Steve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and, here’s me.
There was a great sign on the road and I can’t believe I forgot to snap a picture of it. Steve told me as we turned onto the road that we might encounter cattle on the road. Although we didn’t see any, we rode past one house that had a big sign on the front fence that read: "Cows Not Mine!" I guess the guy was tired of folks stopping by to tell him "his" cows were in the road! Funny stuff.
Anyway . . . we eventually made it to Glenhaven. Here’s a picture Steve snapped of me after we passed through. I stopped for a pose:
About a mile and a half past Glenhaven is a helluva climb! It can’t be more than 3/4 of a mile to a mile long, but it’s SUPER steep and has two switchbacks. Since I was on my Colnago, I had an 11-23 cassette for this climb. OMG!! That was hard. I was dying for a bail-out gear, but with a 39-tooth small chainring and a 23-tooth "granny" gear, I wasn’t getting any relief. I had meant to buy a 12-27 cassette before this ride, but I forgot. I wanted to get off the bike and walk up that hill SOOOOOO badly, but my ego wouldn’t let me do it. I ground it out at 5 mph or less until I finally made it up. Oh, my legs and lungs hurt so bad after that, but I made it!! I have a picture of the hill, but it’s on a camera that hasn’t been used up yet, so I’ll have to post it later.
After that big climb, the rest of the ride back into Estes Park was pretty much all downhill. Good thing, too, because my legs were TOAST for the rest of the day. Steve and I rode back into Estes Park and then made the short trek back up to the Y camp where we drove back to Broadview. We got back at around 9:15 AM or so. We had a little breakfast, chatted with Lisa, Laura, Shauna, and Matt, and then agreed to watch the boys while the girls went on a hike, and Matt went down to the Y camp to use the internet to do some work.
I crashed for about an hour and a half at about 10:30 AM. Sorry to leave Steve to watch the twins alone, but I was beat! Almost 120 miles in 2 days was a big strain on my legs, especially with all the sustained climbing we did yesterday and the steep hill we did today.
At noon, after I got up and had some lunch, Steve and I just hung out with the twins and the dogs and didn’t do much of anything! Matt came back in the early afternoon with some Tour de France news, but other than that . . . not much else until dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was our eating out experience. We had 5:30 PM reservations at the Dunraven Inn. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t eat so early, but Shauna and (possibly) Matt will be hiking Longs Peak tomorrow, and we need to be back home early. So, we loaded up and drove down to the Inn for a nice Italian meal.
Here’s a picture of Lisa and me in the car on the way to the Inn. Its doesn’t have a lot of significance other than we thought it turned out pretty nicely considering Lisa held the camera out in front of us and just snapped the picture.
Here are two pictures of us (individually) standing by the Dunraven Inn sign.
And, finally, a picture of Steve holding Duck at the table inside.
1 comment:
Ah, yes-s-s.....ye olde Dunraven. Haven't been there in a while.
Love all the pix -- such a handsome couple (you & Lisa, that is). Of course, you and Steve look pretty good to me, too. Mothers are that way, you know.
Glad you've gotten in such good bike trips. John had to translate some of your terms for me, though. I'll catch on one of these days, if Alzheimer's doesn't get me first.
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