Day 21 Sea 2 Shining Sea

Because of too much fun and crappy internet I will be playing catch up with my blog today on our rest day in Dodge City, Kansas. I hope I can get all the info out and all the pictures and videos uploaded.

Ok, here we go. So, since we climbed up Vail Pass yesterday, we shuttled to the top of Vail Pass and started with a nice easy bike path descent from 10,666ft to 8,753ft over 16.5 miles. This was not the type of descent to get up to high speeds like I like to do. This descent was a lot of braking and tight bike paths while staying with the group. We rolled thru the town of Frisco which is at the foot of Breckenridge and past Lake Frisco along a dam that seemed to hang over a valley town but because of the road being above us we really couldn't see that town. Sometimes we do fly past some incredible places a bit too fast. Someday I am going to back there and really look around.

From here it was time to go up and up and up to our highest and last big climb of our trip across the country. Over the next 9 miles and over one and half hour we climbed over 2000 ft up to 12,000ft to the top of Loveland Pass.  Larry and I knew this was going to be a big deal to accomplish on a tandem. We set our own pace, didn't try to keep up with anyone and didn't try to catch anyone. We took three breaks at 3 miles, 5 miles and 7 miles. This allowed us to give our butts a rest and gave me time to take some pictures. Near the top we all gathered at the USO rv for lunch so we could ride the last half mile to 12,000ft together.

The descent from here was fun, but bittersweet. We knew this is the last day for long descents. From the top we had beautiful hairpin turns and long steep straights. I kept it way under control and we still hit 60mph. After the first big descent we entered a series of bike paths that kept us off of the interstate. This lead us thru some really cool old towns like Silverthorne, Georgetown, Idaho Springs, Hidden Valley and ended in Morriston. Again I need to go back for a better look. It was not all down hill from the top of Loveland Pass. We did have to climb a very cruel Floyd Hill just to remind us that we were still in Colorado. To stay in the group I had to ride the brakes for the last 20 miles. I will go back there again. Promise.