Day of the passes!

Six of them to be exact. A day during the week popped up free and with no rain in the forecast I thought it was time for a nice big-ish loop. Had thought I would leave before sunrise from the house and head towards the CT for a jaunt to Copper than back to pb via the main road.

It didn't take long for the schedule to change. Decided to sleep in so didn't leave the house 'till a little after 7. Wasn't hungry so I skipped b-fast, grabbed a handful of mike-n-ices and a handful of peanut m&m's and threw them in the bag. Was only planning on a 50-ish mile ride so that should be plenty of food, right.

Hit 24 over to waltz ditch road and picked up the ct.for the trek over to copper Mtn. Smooth and fast until the climb out of camp hale up to kokamo pass. Four miles and a little over 3000' of climbing. It finally got easy once I got above tree line. A little after the pass I hit the high point of the day, around 12200' then easy sailing over to searle pass, the dropped down towards copper. Saw a few female riders rocking it so struck up a conversation and I said I wasn't looking forward to the road ride back to pb, when they chimed in you should do this loop of up the bike path to right below vail pass, hit a trail on the left, then up to ptarmigan road, over the pass and back down to camp hale. This was definitely more than I had anticipated but I liked the idea of lots more trail and no main road. We parted ways and away I went. The riding was fairly easy until I got to ptarmigan road and had to walk a bit. The down side was long and fast and did I say long. Was feeling good until I started climbing back up to Tennessee pass. Stopped and ate the rest of my snacks and knew as long as I could make it to the top the trail fairies had a tote full of goodies waiting for me. Slow movig until I hit the food cache where I had a nice cold coca-cola. Five minutes later I was rolling on at a nice little clip. Quick spin down the road and back at the house in 9 hours after 70 miles and somewhere between 8000 and 9000' of climbing and crossing six Mtn passes. All on about 500 calories, maybe 50 mike-n-ices and 20 m&m's. The biggest ride I have had in quite a while and it felt awesome. Can't wAit to get out and do it again.

Such a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky for any of it. Started out around 37 degrees when I left the house and got hot. Probably in the mid 60's when I got home. One of the most beautiful days we have had in weeks. So glad I got to pedal my bicycle all day in it.

Oh yeah, the Leadville 100 is tomorrow and it's cool and all, but doesn't have anything compared to what I did today. peace