Our hosts cooked a hearty breakfast for their guests this morning: egg casserole with tater tots on top, sausage with apple mixed in, fruit and scones. They had 9 guests including us, so Michele grabbed a plate and we sat outside at their table in the front yard. Rob was stuffed from the night before so he only had juice. The owner set the most beautiful table in the dining room, we felt bad not joining, but there were too many strangers to risk going mask-less.
In the front yard we saw a hummingbird visit the feeder just feet from us and couldn't care less about us. We think it was a female broad tailed hummingbird, very common in all of Colorado. After breakfast we had over an hour until we had to leave for our ride. We sat on the owners' front porch and waited for the hummer to return so Rob could catch a photo. She didn't come back though. One of the guests came out on the porch and told us he visits here every year for a month. He went to school at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, just blocks from us. It is a public engineering and scientific university. He works in oil and gas, and has lived in Asia for over 30 years. He said coming back is always a reverse culture shock, mostly in how loud Americans speak!
About 9:30am we got suited up for our day and prepped our picnic in the cooler. Temps were around 68 degrees and fairly windy. We rode I70 West to Colorado 74 East to Colorado 103. It took us to the Echo Lake State Park. We had plenty of time until 2pm to enter the scenic byway. It was a popular spot so it took us awhile to find a place where we could park. There is a trail partially adjacent to the lake and the view was picture perfect!
Back at the restaurant area, we scoped out where we could park to have our picnic. There were two parking lots but not many spots. We got back on the bike and lucked out finding a spot because a man ran over and told us we could parallel park in front. The spot had fading paint so we didn't see it. He's local and parks there when he rides his motorcycle to the park. We then found a nice picnic table and had our lunch. While Michele held it, Rob got the picnic items from the trailer. Two bikers that had just parked behind the Wing had just come down from the summit of Mt. Evans. They said it was very windy and that made it very cold. Once out of the wind, the temperature was quite pleasant. They also said the road was in bad shape. Lots of pot holes, very large frost heaves and extremely sharp hair-pin switch-backs. He told Rob that our trailer would bottom out over the frost heaves and be difficult to navigate the switch-backs! Rob was skeptical about that.
We had a good lunch and the sun warmed us despite the wind. We still had an hour to use up before we could enter the gate. The sky was starting to get cloudy and gray in the distant mountains and we worried it would rain on us. Rob said we would not attempt to go up if there was heavy rain. At 1:15pm we walked back to the bike and hung out there. Several different groups of friendly people over the next 45 minutes came over to ask us about the bike and trailer. First were two men who couldn't believe we rode from Virginia. They asked how many miles and hours a day we ride, and how quickly we got to Colorado. One said he loves Colorado so much that when his wife wanted to move to California, he stayed behind and she's now his ex.
The next group to come over were three men who are from the area just out on their motorcycles for the day. One went to Georgetown University "a long time ago." They asked about the trailer and how much it weighs. Their friend asked Rob the year of the bike. When Rob told him it was a 2009, he guessed that it had about 50,000 to 70,000 miles on it. Rob told him the bike has a bit more than that at 174,000 miles!
The next was a man who travels to Richmond for work. His adult kids live in Colorado. He has a Can-Am (a three wheeled motorcycle) and was curious about the trailer as he was considering one for their bike. They do quite a bit of traveling as well.
It was 2pm by then and the skies looked okay for us to go up. We put on more layers knowing it could be 40-50 degrees up top with wind. Echo Lake is already at 10,500 feet so we had nearly 4,000 feet more to go. There was a bit of a wait at the gate. After about 10 minutes we were through the gate and on our way.
We later learned that these trees, the Bristlecone, grow twisted to be stronger against the extreme winds at this altitude. They can live thousands of years and because of that are the oldest single living organisms on earth. Amazing.
We steadily and slowly made our way up.
There were a lot of switchbacks on the way up, Rob thinks about 15 or so, and they were nearly all hairpin turns. They were very tight turns, more than we've ever experienced, and on the edge of the steep mountain. It was a bit stressful that people in cars could not stay on their side of the road, because they were afraid of heights or sightseeing, or just didn't care. Rob had to be extra vigilant and honked at people to move over quite a bit. Michele was anxious because of this and didn't get any pictures of the hairpin turns!
We made it to the top, 14,000 feet and found a parking spot. Luckily, the winds were very calm. Temps were in the low 40's but with the sun shining down, it was very comfortable. Given the windy conditions down at 10,500 feet we felt pretty lucky to have such favorable conditions at the summit.
We snapped photos and decided to not linger too much since the skies were looking nasty. We could see the rain in the distance and all around us and didn't want to be riding down in it. The moody skies made for dramatic photos on the descent.
Rob went the speed limit which was 20mph for most of the descent, and no, he did not bottom out the trailer on the bad frost heaves. This was the worst of them. Someone painted a smiley face on it, haha. You can see how the road ripples.
On our way down, there was a small pull off area. Look at what we saw!! See the little baby? Michele was staring and cooing at it so much that it got up and walked over to its mama.
They migrate further down the mountain in winter. By the way, the average temperature at 14,000 feet is 45 degrees in the summer and it can snow any day in summer. It was wicked windy in this spot, we did not get off the bike.
Moving on, we continued descending and Rob said we were surrounded by rain. We were in a tiny hole without rain. The arrow in the middle of the green (the rainy areas) is us.
Back at the gate at Echo Lake, we stopped to quickly put on our rain jackets just in case. It was nearly 4pm by then--we couldn't believe the ride up and back took two hours! We continued on CO103 towards Idaho Springs, then took I70 East to US6 East. US6 was really scenic in a steep rocky canyon by a river.
We learned that traveling 1,000 feet up in altitude on a mountain is equivalent to about 600 miles north in latitude. Golden Colorado sits at about 5,600 and Mt. Evan's summit is at 14,140. We traveled up and back down about 8,540 feet. So today we rode the equivalent of 5,124 miles north and then 5,124 miles south in latitude. No wonder we felt tired after today's ride!
As a side note, Rob put in his earplugs at the Summit of Mt. Evans and didn't remove them until we had descended over 8,000 feet. He claims that he could hear the air pressure rush into his ears when he took his ear plugs out down in Golden, CO.
Dinner tonight was another online order from Woody's Pizza and we walked over to pick it up. We also ate the side salad from yesterday that we couldn't finish.
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Colorado for this trip where we've been so happy for two weeks. On to northwestern Nebraska!
This is a pretty painting in downtown Golden and a cool sculpture by the university campus.
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