CRMBT: Day 4. Peak to Peak HWY

So, here I am day 4 of the trip and beat. This has been hard. Harder than expected, but that is my fault in that I truly didn't really look over the route much ahead of time-- I was just along for the ride. And what a ride it was.

All night last night, Bill was saying "tomorrow will be a recovery day". I looked at the route. Umm... not really. It starts with a 15-mile climb up Golden Gate Highway that looked rough, followed only by 60 miles of challenging ups and downs, before we hit Estes. I didn't want to say anything because for once it was nice not to get all worked up about the following day and how it was going to be harder than before. But I was feeling it. And worried about my quads.

Got up that morning and was hot to trot. As we were making our way out we ran into Jeff, who was going to sag up to the second aid station (mile 33) and go from there. Smart man, I thought. Jane and Bill weren't in a rush, so Joan, Sue and I started off. Started riding and wasn't feeling it today. Mentally, my highlight was yesterday. This was our last day and we wanted to make it fun. But would it be really with all this climbing again?

We got about 3 miles in when I saw a sag wagon stopped and loading up a couple of people. I asked Sue and Joan if they would want to sag to the first aid station and they agreed happily. We were elated. All of us.

Happy as can be to be hanging with Kevin, the most wonderful driver, EVA!

As we got in Jane and Bill saw us, they stopped, but opted to make the climb. Suckers! I mean, good for them.

We got to the aid station and got out to continue our journey.

Ready to roll! See those far, far mountains, that's where we're going!

For the next 60-ish miles we went up, up and down, down. We saw some of the most beautiful stuff and we stopped to take pictures and enjoy one another's company-- something we hadn't been able to do on the previous days. It was great.

Look, I see them! Mountains in the distance!

Pretty, pretty, everywhere!

And here we are enjoying it!

Just call her "Joan, Queen of the Mountain!"

Gorgeousness all around!

More scenery = more photo opps

Second to last climb conquered!

View of Longs Peak as we rode by.

Last stop at Lily Lake. Ahhh!

And from Lily Lake, it was time to go into Estes and complete our trip. Overall, it was a great day. Peak to Peak Highway was beautiful and I am glad that I did not overdue it on my last day of riding in the mountains by riding all the way up Golden Gate Highway. I have this little thing called Ironman coming up in a month's time and needed to be smart enough to know when was enough-- and I was. On top of that, regardless of my tone in this blog or the picts we took, Peak to Peak Highway was NO PIECE OF CAKE and so I had plenty to challenge me on this day.

Coming into Estes, I had a few pleasant and fun surprises in store for me.

Ross came up to spend the night and next day with us. How I missed him.

Margaritas with the girls! Need to replenish my salt intake, right?