This will go down as the last day of flat roads for a long, long time. Boulder marks our last stop before climbing into the Rocky Mountains and even though this was a long day, everyone who was out on the road had a ton of fun with it. The cow pastures and the wheat fields of Colorado will soon be behind us and this was their goodbye, almost making us be a little disappointed at what we were leaving in our rearview mirror. The sights ahead have been pretty phenomenal though!
Ride Overview
Mileage: 94.9 miles
Elevation: +3,008 ft. / -1,977 ft.
Points of Interest: Rocky Mountains, Foothills, Flatirons
Tales of the Trail
As we rolled out of Fort Morgan today, we knew the long miles that were ahead of us, 95 of them, and yet that didn’t slow anything down or lower the mood. Today was a day of all kinds of somewhat random events combining to make a day we could be satisfied with heading into the rest day. Along that first stretch, the road was flat and the fields we had been used to continued off to the horizon. Then, at the first rest stop, the team broke into what might become a favorite roadside snack: pickles! As someone who is not a huge fan myself, it will be hard to write about the enthusiasm that was being exuded, but I will try. The crunchy, salty goodness of the pickles and more importantly, the pickle juice was the perfect combination of flavors after a bike ride. They were replenishing while not being sugary and that was a huge and welcome change. The massive jar of pickles that we had lasted no longer than two rest stops.
By the time we were making it to the second rest stop, way off in the distance we started to see something. Could it be clouds? Could it be mountains? The Rockies’ should be getting closer, right? As we squinted off into the distance and realized that nothing was moving, the potential clouds were definitely the Rocky Mountains. That was a moment to celebrate! We could see where we were heading and no longer were our sightlines staring off into infinite plains, they were arriving at the magnitude of some of the largest mountains in North America. As the mountains came better into focus through the stretch between our second and third rest stops, that made the riding all the more rewarding because every stroke of the pedals was some extra detail that you could make out in the distance.
Speaking of the third rest stop… wow this one was great! We had planned to pause at a Mexican restaurant and grocer called Carniceria La Mexicana and as the van crew were waiting there, they were greeted by a relative of the owning family of the establishment. He had kind words for our cause and said that meals for each of us would be covered by him so long as we paid for drinks! Again, the kindness of people in this country never ceases to amaze! We sat down at the tables outside and ate to our hearts’ content. There were now only 38 miles left in the day!
The weather continued to get warmer through the day and we could all see a large rain cloud forming in the distance over Denver from our respective locations. As one team would come to find out, that storm would hit. The odd part was how localized this weather event was. The team up the road and the van never encountered any rain. Maaike, Parker, Ehsan, Lauren, and Nishk were forced to find shelter at a gas station and wait. This team, once they started rolling again, had one last trouble before making it to the final rest stop of the day and that was a chain drop on Parker’s bike. Unfortunately, this was no normal chain drop. Getting caught between the frame and the cassette, Parker’s chain was totally bent by the time they got to look at it on the side of the road. A trip in the van was in order.
After all this, everyone on the road and now in the van reached Boulder, the sight of our rest day tomorrow and started to experience what we think of so far as a pretty neat town. Packages came from family, friends, and online orders and everyone will have nice thoughts to go to bed to. Some of us are even off with family and friends who live here in Boulder. We will certainly get up to fun activities off the bike tomorrow!
