Stardate 2016.375

The Sangre de Cristo Range

The Last Of Our Trip
This is the last post for my California trip. From the canyons of southeast Utah, we flew northwest across southwestern Colorado and its finest mountain range — the San Juan Mountains. In the pic below, Lone Cone (12,614 feet) welcomed us back to Colorado. Lone Cone is the western-most major peak in the San Juan Range. It's also Colorado's western-most 12,000-foot mountain.



Southwest Colorado's sprawling San Juan Mountains reach for the sky. There are even more peaks to the left and more peaks to the right. The ski runs of Telluride may be seen in the lower right.



The summit of 14,150-foot Mount Sneffels (rank #27) is my favorite 14,000-foot peak in Colorado. The peak is almost dead-center in the following pic. The band of snow running off its summit is the upper portion of the Snake Couloir, one of the state's finest snow climbs. The section is hidden from view. I climbed the Snake many, many moons ago and should go climb it again. Here's a link to my Sneffels blog post.




Western Colorado's Ridgway Reservoir (no e in Ridgway) will soon be collecting lots of runoff.




We like to road cycle the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River area. The north rim road is visible.




Blue Mesa Reservoir also is gearing up for the spring runoff.




Here's the southern end of the Sawatch Range.



This is the northern terminus for the Sangre de Cristo Range. It's hard to tell here, but the Sangre de Cristo Range runs south all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.



A landmark of the Front Range, Pikes Peak towers to 14,110 feet (rank #30). The peak was named after Zebulon Pike of the Pike Expedition in 1806. In 1893 Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful after a visit to the summit and taking in the view.




The great plains of America meet the suburban sprawl of the Front Range.




Parting shot: A race to land.




Thanks for reading!

Adios

Stardate 2015.416

Enduring Wet

We've had a lot of precipitation this spring, which is a good thing. However, it's also cut into our bicycling time. I don't mind riding in the wet; it can be kind of fun. However, wet rides result in more bike maintenance on things such as bearings. Moreover, this time of year, rain often holds hands with Zeus. The latter is the main reason I prefer not to ride in the rain. I have a healthy fear of lightning, thanks to some mountaineering events. Below are photos from several recent road bike rides.



Nonetheless, everything is green, green, green – and more green! The California poppies aren't too concerned about a little wet.



Sometimes we ride far south of the metro area to Arrowhead Golf Course where we visit a nice little 15% grade to the clubhouse. It's probably a good thing I'm not employed by Arrowhead. I'd be the guy seeing how fast he could get a golf cart up and down the steep grade. No matter what the weather conditions, the spectacular up-thrust sandstone grabs your attention.



Allium is enjoying the wet too. Allium is related to onion. The closest wild allium I can find in my literature is Allium cernuum, also known as Nodding Onion and belonging to the Lily family. The domesticated Allium seen at Arrowhead appears to have a fuller flower.



Colorado's 30th tallest peak, 14,110-foot Pikes Peak, was a bit foggy-headed on this morning. Good views of Pikes Peak may be found in the Garden of the Gods, west of the city of Colorado Springs.



Garden of the Gods



The east face of Pikes Peak, unveiled. In the summer of 1893, the words to the anthem "America the Beautiful" were coined in a poem by Katharine Lee Bates following a trip to the summit of this mountain.



The Garden of the Gods area is an interface of several ecosystems. Along the Front Range, the short-grass prairie life zone merges with the piñon-juniper life zone. A life zone is an easy way of delineating a land area by elevation and climate.



Pikes Peak is getting ready to play with the clouds again.



Cheyenne Mountain rises above Colorado Springs and is home to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). In addition to important security and radar tasks, NORAD tracks Santa via radar throughout Christmas Eve. At the same time, kids can log onto a website and talk to real elves.

Another icon of Colorado Springs is the United States Air Force Academy. In years past, football games between Air Force and Navy have resulted in fantastic military jet fly overs. Better yet, the visitor center is open to the public again. However the Academy is still operating under heightened security; you can be party to a random vehicle check at any time. A visit to the chapel and visitor center of the Air Force Academy is fun and motivating. The Academy grounds offer good road biking as well.

On occasion, the Academy opens their observatory to school kids or the public. Cadets operate the telescope and take you on a journey through the heavens. When I visited, people could request a celestial location to zero in on if possible.

Yes, I like the military, aeronautics, stars and uniformed higher education – can you tell?



We had a nice Memorial Weekend and I hope you did too!

Adios

Stardate 2014.458

A Triple Bypass & Chasing Fitness

There's a big ride coming mid-July called the Double Triple Bypass. It's a two-day event with which I like to torture myself. Yet, I'm not ready and harboring too much winter fat. I need to train harder. During the week, I try to get out in the evenings for an hour or two; it's better than nothing. However, I haven't been very consistent.

On the bright side, Snowcatcher and I got some good training in recently with the help of the MS 150 High Rollers training ride and the annual Elephant Rock Cycling Festival. The high country is defrosting and we'll soon be in those areas as well. The High Roller ride traversed through rolling farmlands between Longmont, Boulder and Loveland, Colorado. It's been wet, and everything is spectacularly green now.


Elephant Rock is an annual (27 years) event hosting 7,000 cyclists of all abilities. The ride has 8, 27, 32, 62 and 100-mile courses to choose from, followed by food and a vendor expo. The rolling terrain is more pronounced and difficult in this region of Front Range prairie. The rollers are long and steep, and your legs don't hesitate to voice about it. Normally, I'm ready to tackle the century ride. However, I was skeptical of my spring fitness and opted for the 62-mile ride. In hindsight, I probably had the legs for the longer ride. On the other hand, I had enough energy to pluck some weeds later in the day. Snowcatcher said given the current popular and newly legal "recreational" activity in our state, that sentence could be taken very wrong. So I will clarity. I took up residence with the dandelions while I waited for Snowcatcher to cross the finish line.




Another training ride we do a lot is Vail Pass. It's a ride at elevation and very scenic. The west side is long and steep, and we try to begin on the that side. The bike path meanders up and over Vail Pass, and you don't have to worry about busy I-70. In fact, the bike path hooks up with the myriad bike paths in Frisco and Breckenridge for some longer riding. The view from the 10,666-foot summit is a good one.



Back to the Double Triple Bypass. The ride entails three mountain passes, all over 10,000 feet in elevation, and two of them are well over 11,000 feet in elevation. Ride length is 120 miles with 10,000 feet of vertical climbing. The second day is the same as the first, only reverse direction. The second day is more difficult because at mile 90 you hit the low elevation point of the ride (7,500 feet) and immediately climb to 11,140 feet. For me, each day will be an eight-hour grind, which is why it's hard to train for – eight hour rides require five, six, eight- hour training rides. Time constraints and weather can limit this

Adios!