Just a little more of CO

Our ride up Cottonwood Pass was fantastic. We got up early and drove into Buena Vista, parking downtown. We changed into our cycling gear (the van is great for these roadside changes in attire) and started up the road before 8:00am. It's 20 miles and a 4100' vertical climb one way, with 2 sections of 10% grade. It took us 3.5 hours to get to the top. We were very closely matched, both arriving at the top at nearly the same time.

Here's the view looking NW, toward Taylor Reservoir (Crested Butte is beyond that).

It took about an hour to get back down, which is hard to believe...

After the ride, we drove to Colorado Springs to spend the weekend with our friends, Blaise & Elizabeth, who used to live in Virginia. On the way, we ran into a thunder-snow-storm near Woodland Park. It was wild: the temp went from 80 degrees to 40 degrees instantly, the drops hitting the windshield were huge and so loud I thought it was going to break, and the roadside turned into a flash flood. The was an inch or so of slush accumulating on parked cars. Keeping with typical Colorado weather, the Springs was warm & sunny.

We hiked one day at the Cheyenne Canyon area near Pike's Peak, but got a late start and ended up being chased off the mountain by lightening. The trees were gorgeous though, very healthy.

And to cap off the trip, we mountain biked with our friends at their neighborhood park, called Ute Park. It's a fun place to mountain bike, and it's just around the corner. Here's the gang: Elizabeth, Blaise, Anna, Bob and Joe.