A right of passage...(so to speak) Taking a bike UP lookout mountain. (Then back down...) It is a 5 mile road with 1700 feet of altitude increase. Starting at 5900 feet above sea level, going to 7600 above. I am going to ride it tomorrow-Saturday!!! My summer right of passage!!! On my new fancy road bike!!! I will post the outcome...
Walker Ranch is north of lookout mountain. This is the big mountain just west of Denver...The one with all the tv broadcast antennas on it. Buffalo Bill's grave will be where we will turn around. If I were to continue straight on this road, instead of turning around, It would go to Evergreen, then down out of the mountains to Morrison, then back to Golden along the hogback(another "right of passage" climb) to the start. A big circle, called the Lariat loop. A National Scenic byway...
Oh yeah, that's the one in Golden where they do all the hang gliding. My gf rode up that a couple of weeks ago.
Wish I was still out there. Lotsa cool happenings coming up: Flogging Molly @ Red Rocks, Great American Beer Festival, Clutch at the Fillmore and some good riding too!
Had a good ride. there was a whole bunch of roadies climbing this hill today, as the season is getting very short, and it's now or wait 'till next year. It was hot and very sunny(80*) It was uphill the entire 5 1/2 miles, not even a 2 foot downhill section. We hit the trees at 4 miles and the shade was very welcome. Some of the switchbacks were so steep as to make me stand up to go around them. The downhill was fast, I averaged around 25-30 coming down. The hold ups were the cars. The climbing speed was like 6 though. I am very glad my bike has some pretty toothy gears in the rear cluster, that helped for sure. I took a camera! So...you all are stuck looking at my snaps. Getting the bikes ready. Looking down at some of the many switchbacks, half way up. You can see some of the other bikers. Denver is in that haze, somewhere??? About 2/3rds the way up. I MADE IT!!! Buffallo Bill's grave on the top of Lookout Mountain.(sorry, I am not a super model) An interesting yucca covered in ladybugs, next to the grave... Thanks for the support!
