Up and Down

Today was a great ride. We climbed 4300 feet from Salida in 23 miles, crossed the continental divide at Monarch Pass, and gave back most of that elevation gain as we descended into Gunnison. The climb was long, but not too steep, and we were able to grind our way up. I was averaging 200-250 watts, and making about 7-8 mph. We reached the top shortly after 10 AM.

The weather was perfect. When we did our planning we knew we were taking a risk because the mountain weather in Colorado in mid-September can be pretty much anything: snow, rain, hail, sleet, thunder. But we had clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-50s to start, warming quickly, and then cooling as we climbed.

And the scenery was spectacular. I took a lot of pictures so I will let them do most of the talking.

Heading up, early in the climb. The pass is to the left of the low peak in the center.

Aspens on fire

One funny -- or sort of funny, in nerdy way -- thing happened on the way up. Two pieces of background to set up the story: first, I am using my phone in a map case on my handlebar bag for navigation, but I have been unable to figure out how to turn off meeting notifications from my Outlook calendar, so they keep popping up as I ride along. Second, when I climb, I usually alternate between standing and sitting, which helps me use different muscles. So here I was, grinding my way up, thinking "OK, just get to that yellow sign and then stand up." Sure enough, just as I got to the sign, my phone popped up with a notification for the daily C7x Standup meeting, as if on cue. So I just did what it said and popped out of the saddle. Well, it seemed funny at the time.

The ski area. Must be getting close

Final ramp to the summit

Made it! That's one big hill

Looking east from the top

On the way up we passed a couple, and then later a solo rider, all on loaded touring bikes. At the top we visited with them a bit. The couple are travelling from Anchorage to Mexico City. The solo guy was going from Pueblo to San Francisco. It turns out that he is staying at the same motel as we are so we had a chance to visit a bit more when he got in.

We also saw a bunch of mountain bikers at the top. Apparently there are lots of trails up there, in the vicinity of the ski resort. These guys had shuttled a car to the top and were riding down to Poncha Springs. They were super friendly and we had fun comparing their robust trail bikes to our delicate road machines.

Check out this gearing: 30 tooth chainring, 50 tooth rear cog

We lingered a while, took some pictures, and visited with the other riders. The descent was somewhat a mirror image of the climb: about 10 miles of high-speed coasting. It would be possible to get going really fast, but I tried to keep it at about 30 mph; above that and it gets a bit scary for me. There was one long empty straightaway so I let it go up to 40 for a moment. Whee!

After that the grade got more gentle and there was a pretty stiff headwind so we had to work a bit for the last 40 miles to Gunnison.

All day we were being passed by dozens of amazing classic roadster cars: fifties and sixties model Alfas, Ferraris, Mercedes, Porches, Aston Martins, and so on, impeccably restored. We figured there must be some kind of rally going on. As we rolled into Gunnison, they were all assembled in a roadside park/museum. We pulled in and spent some time checking them out. It turns out that it's a weeklong rally called the Colorado Grand that raises money for scholarships. Supposedly the entry fee for the rally is $7000. Wow. But these were probably half-million-dollar cars, so I guess the owners can afford it.

Classic trains too

In Gunnison we met my friends Roy and Karen, who recently moved to Lake City, for dinner. It was good too see them again. I tried to explain to Roy why I only report total climbing, and not descending, in my daily reports, but he was not having it.

All in all it was a great day. It's good to have Monarch in the rearview mirror. We have a couple more tough climbing days ahead: tomorrow to Montrose, then Friday to Telluride. Today's ride: 65 miles, 4841 feet of climbing, 99% of it continuous. (And just for Roy, just this once: 4186 feet of descending, for a net gain of 655 feet.)