Loveland Pass

After leaving Breckenridge we had one final big climb before we finished the Rockies and it was our biggest climb of the trip. We rode over the Loveland Pass to Empire. Basically the first 24 miles are uphill finishing with a 12 mile climb at grades of 6-7%, which progressively gets steeper towards the top. Plus the pass is at an elevation of 11,990 feet; it was the first time on the trip I felt like I was affected by the thin air, but that also may have just been me getting gassed after 10 plus miles of straight climbing. Also I got to ride with Bruce who was a great cyclist. It was also cool to get to chat with him about cycling and business.

At the top is was freezing cold. I was really glad I put my tights in my back pocket on the way up, they were priceless going down. The next 16 miles were all downhill, which was awesome. After going down the switchbacks from the pass we actually got on I-70 for several miles. The freeway was gridlock because it was the Sunday of the Fourth of July weekend and everyone was driving back to Denver from the resort towns of the Rockies. What was awesome was that we were cruising at around 35 mph on the shoulder and flying past the cars in bumper to bumper traffic. We definitely got some odd looks.

We spent the night at Rocky Mountain Village (RMV) where we also had a friendship visit. RMV is another camp for people with disabilities. We had dinner with their campers and then participated in some skits they were performing. It was cool to see some of the campers come out of their shells in the skits. Afterwards we sang a bunch of camp songs, which was fun, up to a point...

Also that night the sky as the sun was setting in the mountains was impressive. The clouds looked like something from a Renaissance painting- they were almost too beautiful to be real.