Boulder > Brainard Lake > Blackhawk > Golden Gate > Denver: 102mi, 9850ft gained

Ticked off another classic Front Range ride today, but made it a lot more interesting than standard out-n-back. Started off taking the bus up to Boulder, then tackling the ever popular Lefthand Canyon climb up to the quirky little mountain village of Ward at 9450ft.

Ward

Once crossing the Peak To Peak Highway just above Ward, I continued further up to Brainard Lake at 10,300ft. This is a fee area (and quite crowded) during summer months, but in the snowy season it's free to cross the gate on feet or two wheels.

road conditions began to deteriorate around 10,000ft

Brainard Lake in the Roosevelt National Forest

After eating lunch on the shore of the lake, I met a couple of backcountry skiers who'd ridden mountain bikes w/ ski gear in tow and had a beer and good company in the parking area. Back to the task at hand, I began south on the Peak to Peak.

I eventually made it to the casino town of Blackhawk, refilled my water bottles inside a big casino while wearing full spandex kit and earning confused looks from heavyset retirees feeding the slots. Just east of Blackhawk, I took a very steep, dirt Smith Hill Rd up and over to Golden Gate Canyon Rd before climbing the final ridge as the sun sank low over the foothills to the west.

Once over the top, it was a magnificent descent of 2000ft in 7miles into the town of Golden. A straight shot on the rollers along 32nd Ave brought me to my buddy Ian's house for a beer and hanging out, a welcome reward after a long day of 102mi and 9,800 vertical feet of climbing. Finally accomplished my solo mountain century ride this year!

Iceland or bust!

For months I've been mulling over plans for an epic, solo, self supported bicycle tour in Europe this summer. I've wanted to do a trek like this for several years and as things have panned out over the winter, life finally lined up to make it happen. Time to move on from a long relationship, from 4.5 years living in Denver, from 8.5 years as a bike messenger for Denver/Boulder Couriers. Time to go on a long adventure!!

I finally pulled the trigger and bought my plane ticket, thus making this feel like much more of a reality. I fly from Denver to Iceland in June, spend a month there circumnavigating the island and checking out the fascinating geologic features: active volcanoes, fjords, glaciers, mountains, geysers, and perhaps most appealing- hot springs!

In early July, I'll fly to mainland Europe, catch some mountain stages of the Tour de France later in July and spend 2 months exploring the continent. No real agenda yet, but I expect it to include France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany... maybe more, maybe less depending on my muses. I'll be traveling on my bike, carrying all my gear and belongings in panniers, primarily camping at night. Having done two short tours in Utah in years past, I'm ready for something seriously epic. Can't wait!

Grandpa's 90th birthday bash, & Chicago

Grandpa turned 90 earlier this week and his four daughters planned a big family reunion party to celebrate. It was a celebration of 4 generations of family and it was really a pleasure to have made the trip back. This was the biggest gathering of the Elliott side of my family that I can remember, at least since Julie & Dave's wedding in 2008. I'm always very impressed with my relatives- they are the best collection of loving, positive, supportive and encouraging folks you could hope for.

Grandpa's cake almost burned the house down

I tried to imagine what Grandpa must have felt looking around and engaging with 3 generations of his descendents, all really genuine, kind and interesting people. He should be very proud that he's helped cultivate some great souls. I'm sure he is.

Two days of good family time, now followed up by a solo day of poking around Chicago on foot before heading back to the airport. Covered a lot of ground- Loop, Magnificent Mile, several miles of lakeshore, Lakeview and Logan Square before taking the train out to Midway. Made some friends along the way, and soaked up the energy that Chicago exudes.

A great day for March, the wind blustery and seas angry.

I came back from this trip feeling really refreshed and inspired. I've had some big changes in my life during the last few months and some even bigger plans coming up this summer. All my family really shares their support and encouragement, even if my life and plans are much different from theirs. It's a genuine love and I don't take it for granted.

Sedalia > South Platte River > High Grade Rd > Denver: 94mi, 6500ft gained

A major motivation of my road rides is exploring new places and roads that I haven't seen yet, and I keep being drawn further from home as I mark more trips off my "to do" list. This one was particularly interesting since it is fairly far southwest of Denver and doesn't get much weekend warrior roadie bike traffic. I made my way down to the little town of Sedalia on the edge of the foothills before heading up Jarre Canyon towards the high country.

I've come across a vast variety of creatively built mailboxes out in the mountain roads, but this one is my favorite to date- attached to the back half of a vintage tractor sinking into the hillside:

Further up the ridge, I came across some paramilitary wannabees preparing to play war games with their paint guns and full camo fatigues. They were actually quite nice folks- to each his own I suppose, although I'd prefer to spend my weekends pedaling my bike in the mountains than pretending I'm in battle. Either way, another novel sight along my rides. As I said, I'm getting more remote in my routes so maybe this is par for the course moving ahead. If so, I have no complaints in the curiosity department:

This ride had about 20mi of dirt roads, which I typically enjoy. (Although the fast 2000ft descent on gravel was a little nerve racking.) I love the relative solitude you get even with skinny tires though.

From there it was down to the South Platte River, and it was pure joy to see this river as it ought to be out in the mountains. I see it every day during work within the city of Denver, where it has been relegated to a sad, smelly industrial sewer. Before we have our way with it in the city, it flows like a gorgeous mountain waterway:

West Fork of the South Platte River

 Along the way I made new friends, Albert, Donna & Darlene, at the tiny village of Dome Rock, which used to be a railroad stop back in the old mining days. These nice folks were hosting the best yard sale I've ever seen... and I've been to a heck of a lot of yard sales. The structure that they now live in was once the jail, 100 years ago.

And this is the old train depot across the road, leftover from when it was a whistle stop along the mining/tourism rail line:

I then climbed up Foxton Rd out to Pleasant Park, which led to a fast (44+ mph) descent down the High Grade Rd that I'd climbed recently. Super fun and a little scary through the twisty steeps. 2000ft descent without pedaling once, and on the brakes for a lot of it. Going down, it was nice to think I'd labored up this stretch as well.

"R U Lazy?" Dunno, how'd you get here at 8400ft?

East Portal snow hike & Frozen Dead Guy Days

April & I decided months ago that it's time to forge our own paths in life for the foreseeable future. It's a mutually positive decision and we both want to move ahead individually. We've had a lot of good treks together; this was something of an encore before she moves into her new apartment next weekend. As they say, it's all good.

We drove up past Rollinsville to the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel for a snow hike into the woods. We packed snowshoes but the trail was sufficiently packed to hike with our boots alone. The 6.2mi long Moffat Tunnel was completed in 1928 and allowed trains to pass beneath the Continental Divide; the trip was shortened from 4-8 hours to just 20 minutes via the tunnel, thus allowing safe, reliable and speedy passage to the West through Colorado. Today it's still used frequently by freight trains and the AMTRAK California Zephyr line.

There is access to lots of backcountry skiing and hiking from this area, although we were short on time and only hiked up to the west for about an hour before we had to turn back. Always nice to be out in the mountainous woods regardless.

Not far away in the town of Nederland was the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, which we'd wanted to check out for the past several years but always somehow missed. The legend goes that there is an old Norweigan man who believed in cryogenics, and he is frozen in a shed awaiting the science to reanimate him when the time is right. Translation: a weird old man inspired a good ol' winter mountain party. They host a slew of events like Coffin Races, Frozen Turkey Bowling, a Hearse Parade and live music, beer garden, etc. The festival turned out to be less fun that we'd hoped, but at least we went.

Coffin Race course & spectators (and medical support)

heaving a frozen turkey towards snowy bowling pins

It was a good day, although in hind sight it would've been more rewarding to spend a full day hiking up somewhere more remote rather than milling around the festival. But alas, we went and experienced and that was good. Time to move on, anyway.