I woke up this morning with icicles hanging from my nose. The altitude and clear skies had brought us very cold temperatures. I thought I was going to have to shovel snow but not so.
This meant that the kids wore long everything when they went out to play in the morning and I did the same when I got on my bike. The sun was warm just standing in it but when the wind on the bike started I was glad that I had my leg warmers and long sleeves.
The first 6 miles of the day were on a nice paved bike path leading us from Fairplay, CO to Alma, CO.
This put us at the base of the Hosier Pass. The beauty of the day was enjoyed all day while the beast was 4 miles long.
The summit could not be seen from the bottom and I wondered if it would ever come but it did finally come. I was pleased that I never had to put the bike into the lowest gear so the grade was not too steep. I was able to average about 10 mph throughout the entire climb.
We finally made it to the top and felt a little like Rocky at the top of the steps that he climbed and did his dance. I did a little imitation of that dance except with my bike over my head instead!
I felt a great sense of accomplishment at 11,542 ft. above sea level! I was glad also that my family was able to experience this with me. Most often it is just me, and if it were not for my family this trip would be just a bike ride rather than the greatest vacation of my life.
Climbing hills is much more taxing on the legs but descending is much more taxing on the brakes and thus on my fragile and wimpy thrill seeking side. The climb up the mountain is much more emotionally relaxing than the hair raising flight down the mountain. The brakes held up and we made it to Breckenridge, CO in no time.
The town was amazing and the people who live there must never get tired of the beauty and majesty of the mountains. There is no wonder either that people come from all over the world to ski here. The slopes are abundant and long.
I would love to one day return and do a little skiing myself! When we arrived we met up with the girls. Abigail had just gotten a new contact from a local eye doctor. She had been given a package that did not contain a contact so the eye doctor gave her a free sample. We were very grateful. We took off our warm weather gear and continued.
The large cities of CO are very biker friendly and proactive in their attempt to keep people in shape and safe while doing it. Therefore, the cities of Breckenridge, Silverthorne, Dillon, and Vail are drizzled with a finely paved bike path. It was nice to be able to stay off the heavily traveled roads for almost 20 miles!!! With storm clouds and lightning rolling slowly in we decided to eat lunch and see if the storm would go away or dissipate. We sat and ate a nice lunch but the storm did not go away. It only dropped the temperature and lifted the winds. The temperature drop was a problem because with not biking I got cold and then to go out in the cold I began to shake. I must have been quite a site waiting at the stoplight and shaking like a leaf in the wind. I did finally get warm. The winds on the other hand were working only in our favor! They were not strong but definitely helped immensely. Because we were on the other side of the mountains, we had been looking forward to going down hill for the remainder of the day after Hosier Pass. In fact there was a stretch of about 5 miles where, because of the wind and decline, we did not see under 30 mph. It was awesome. The long and short of the afternoon, more short than long, was that we made a 37 mile ride take only 1 hour and 50 minutes (to put this in perspective in normal weather conditions, we expected this trip to take us about 2.5 hours). It was fun to go that fast for that long!
We arrived in Kremmling, CO at 3:40 and enjoyed a long night together. Most nights we arrive at between 5 and 6:00 and don’t have much time after showers and clean-up to spend together so tonight was a nice and well needed change!
Something that the LORD has been challenging me with recently is that my wife and kids are so precious and I only get one chance to invest and enjoy time with them! I can’t get to the end of my life and go back and spend more time with them. “Redeem the Time!!” This is the banner that I have been trying to follow! Thank you LORD for the beautiful family that You have entrusted to me!
No comments:
Post a Comment