Month: September 2011

Today dawned with clouds and rain. We had a nice breakfast at the Haute Plate in Glenwood and hoped for nicer weather later. It was cloudy and rainy all morning so we watched the CU-CSU football game that started at 11:30 am. CU won. The sun came out several times during the game and after – but then a rain cell would come by. We did have a nice walk late afternoon. We checked out the Rib CIty restaurant for dinner. We originally had not planned to ride tomorrow – but because we weren’t able to ride today – we now plan to ride past Carbondale to the BRB ranch and back tomorrow morning.. The weather prediction is for no rain tomorrow.

We have been lucky for the most part in avoiding rain. We hoped to do it once again this trip and were mostly successful. We had breakfast at the motel and then headed out to Carbondale for the start of our ride to Aspen. The bike trail from Carbondale towards Aspen is mostly on an old railroad bed. Dick decided not to ride today – but he joined us for lunch in Woody Creek. We had a great ride in very scenic areas for about 22 miles and then had lunch in Woody creek. Just as we were finiishing our lunch it started raining. After some discussion we decided to stop sriding and head back to Glenwood Springs. Dick kindly offered to take John and Rick back to the cars so they could come pick us up. However the weather was nice when they got a couple miles away from Woody Creek. S they brought back one vehicle that we could use as a sag and we proceded to ride all the way back to Carbondale in the sunlight. It sprinkled on us once – but it was of no consequence.
After showers we went to Dinner at the RIvera in Glenwood and celebrated John and Ingrid’s 44th weddinng anniversary. The food was great too!

The original plan was to drive to Grand junction tomorrow and ride in the Monument. But the thought of spending that much time in the car was not appealing. So – subject too change- we are riding to Carbondale and then to the BRB rainch on Hwy 133 and then back. For those that want to ride some more they can ride the canyon. Stay tuned to see what we actually do.

We had planned to start Day 3 at the top of Vail Pass and ride to Glenwood Springs. When we got to the top of Vail Pass it was 39 degrees and raining. So we went on down to East Vail where it was warmer and not raining (that hard) while we got ready to start. As soon as we began it started raining again. We almost made it through Vail Village and Rick had a flat. Some of the “wet Vail” pictures were taken at that time. Near Minturn his new tube needed some more air. We continued on to Avon in the rain and after riding only 15 miles decided we weren’t having much fun yet and decided to break for lunch in Avon. Gary had an afternoon meeting in Boulder so John took him back to his car after lunch. We weighed our options since the weather didn’t look much better and decided to drive to Glenwood Springs and ride up Glenwood Canyon from our motel. We did that in sunshine and warm weather and got in another 17 miles. We would have done more but the canyon bike path was closed at the Shoshone Power plant for repairs from last springs flooding. It was a good day overall.
We were joined by Patti and Robin, and Dick and JoAnn for dinner at the Italian Underground. It took a while to get a table for 9 people – but it was great food. I didn’t do a very good job of getting pictures – but I did get some.
Tomorrow the plan is to ride from Carbondale to Aspen. It is also supposed to rain. So – Stay tuned.

Day 2 started with us nervous about the weather. We considered several options and decided to drive to Frisco and ride from there up to Vail Pass. We were joined by Gary who drove up from Boulder this morning and then rode with us all day today. It was again a bit nippy at the start, but we powered on and got to Copper Mountain where it looked like rain and so we went back from Union Creek to the Village and waited out the little bit of rain that fell and then getting more blue sky we climbed up to Vail Pass. The total distance we rode was less than yesterday but we climbed more. We quickly zoomed back down to Copper Mountain – had lunch then down to Frisco – the cars, and back to the condo in Keystone and too the hot tub for some relaxation and removing some of the kinks from all the climbing. We found a coupon for 2 for 1 dinners at a local restaurant and really enjoyed our meal.

Tomorrow we will be joined by Patti and Robin and we will have dinner with DIck and JoAnn in Glenwood Springs. The ride tomorrow ill be complicated since there is a closure of the bike path for about 3 miles in Glenwood canyon, and not all the rest areas have exits/entrances to/from the Interstate – but we thing we have figured out a strategy. Gary has to go back to Boulder tomorrow and will only do part of the ride from the top of Vail Pass to Glenwood Springs. We will also be bringing our vehicles along with us by taking turns driving 10 miles and then riding back to meet the group. We have doged all rainstorms so far and the forecast for tomorrow is 60%. So our plans may change depending on the weather. Will keep you posted!