Gloria
What a day! We left FairPlay sometime after 8 am. We were 6 riders today...the usual 3 plus Craig, Carl & Zaki. Today was supposed to be a mostly downhill day of plus/minus 70 miles. We had way too many uphills. Definitely not to my liking. (Editor's note: Google Maps said we descended 5000 feet and climbed 2000 feet in elevation.)
We stopped in Hartsel and several things happened:
1. We met the Pedal to Plant Bike group once again - they were as nice as always.
2. Alicia bought some of the best cherries and peaches
After Hartsel we started to climb. I believe Carl was still on the electric bike at this point or he might have traded bikes with Zaki. Eventually Elias got on the electric bike. He never got off.
Lauren surprised us by joining us for lunch on the side of the road. It was great to see her. She flew into Denver in the morning and drove to meet us.
After lunch we had some really nice downhill riding occasionally punctuated by some steep uphills. We arrived at the junction of Royal Gorge & Canon City around 4 pm. The Durry's, Tinstmans and Craig rode on to Canon City. Eric & Megan stayed in a cabin in Royal Gorge. Michael and I rode our bikes 4 miles uphill to Bighorn Mountaintop Lodge where Lauren was waiting. Alicia finally had to follow us after receiving confusing directions about how to get to the Lodge.
We were joined later by Marcus & Stacey, who had been vacationing in Vail. They graciously stopped by the supermarket to pick up breakfast food before coming to the Lodge.
Dinner at 8 Mile restaurant was delicious! We Keegans loved the outdoor atmosphere and the friendly waitstaff. Would go there again in a heartbeat!
After dinner, Lauren drove me to City Market to pick up food for the July 4th celebration that we will have with the entire crew tomorrow.
Should be a great time! Happy July 4th!
What a day! We left FairPlay sometime after 8 am. We were 6 riders today...the usual 3 plus Craig, Carl & Zaki. Today was supposed to be a mostly downhill day of plus/minus 70 miles. We had way too many uphills. Definitely not to my liking. (Editor's note: Google Maps said we descended 5000 feet and climbed 2000 feet in elevation.)
We stopped in Hartsel and several things happened:
1. We met the Pedal to Plant Bike group once again - they were as nice as always.
2. Alicia bought some of the best cherries and peaches
After Hartsel we started to climb. I believe Carl was still on the electric bike at this point or he might have traded bikes with Zaki. Eventually Elias got on the electric bike. He never got off.
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| Elias on the Ebike |
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| The Docs (Eric, Elias & Craig) |
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| Carl & Eric |
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| The infamous electric bike |
After lunch we had some really nice downhill riding occasionally punctuated by some steep uphills. We arrived at the junction of Royal Gorge & Canon City around 4 pm. The Durry's, Tinstmans and Craig rode on to Canon City. Eric & Megan stayed in a cabin in Royal Gorge. Michael and I rode our bikes 4 miles uphill to Bighorn Mountaintop Lodge where Lauren was waiting. Alicia finally had to follow us after receiving confusing directions about how to get to the Lodge.
We were joined later by Marcus & Stacey, who had been vacationing in Vail. They graciously stopped by the supermarket to pick up breakfast food before coming to the Lodge.
Dinner at 8 Mile restaurant was delicious! We Keegans loved the outdoor atmosphere and the friendly waitstaff. Would go there again in a heartbeat!
After dinner, Lauren drove me to City Market to pick up food for the July 4th celebration that we will have with the entire crew tomorrow.
Should be a great time! Happy July 4th!
When Gloria and Lauren came back from the City Market, the gate to the park was locked. Marcus had to drive down to the visitor's center (or some place down there) and roust up a ranger to unlock the gate. Seems his cell phone wasn't working, so he didn't hear Gloria and Lauren call.
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Thanks again for these details, Alicia! We weren't too worried about getting in because we could go under the gate and get in Marc's rental car. We were more concerned about leaving Lauren's rental car at the "Rest Area." We thought it might get towed, stolen or damaged. Luckily, Marc came to the rescue and we drove to the ranger station. That got their attention! We then drove back to the rest area (with ranger escort) so he could open the gate and Lauren could retrieve her car. Marcus answered our texts perfectly - the ranger, however did not. The ranger's excuse for not answering our calls to the ranger station was that his cell phone wasn't properly charged! We thought that was interesting~
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