Today started out great as we prepare to leave our motel in Eagle for the most valued part of our ride, Glenwood Canyon, and on to Glenwood Springs for two nights. Only a 35 mile ride with 10 miles through the Colorado River canyon where the folks who built the engineering marvel of I-70 squeezed into the steep rock canyon had also perched a beautiful bike path along the bank of the Colorado River.
We road on some bike paths out of Eagle and then mostly on US 6 until we got to some brand new asphalt which road like butter the last few miles before we got to the entrance of the canyon bike path.
We stopped briefly to admire the Colorado river just before the confluence with the Eagle River before flowing into Glenwood Canyon. The sign denotes the historic Dotzero bridge over the Colorado which dates back to the early 1800’s.
And then we saw this sign which we thought must be wrong! We had checked the CDOT website this morning and it said the canyon path was open. They’re were rumors it could be closing due to flash flood warnings but they weren’t in effect until this evening.
We continued on about a mile to the find this sign at the very beginning of the path before it goes undet the interstate. Surely they weren’t really closing the path or at the very least they had just closed it and we could quickly finish the 10 miles, the only way for cyclist to traverse the canyon before any rain would fall. Let’s be quick about it and get going I said to Angela.
Pushing in further we find the death blow to our trip at a padlocked steel gate. We’re not going to make it to Glenwood Springs on a bike today or anytime soon.
I called the Starlight Motel in Glenwood Springs and they graciously canceled our two night reservation. Then we started back to where we came from trying to figure a way to salvage ou trip. I considered day drinking at this distillery but it was only 11 am.
At Gypsum we stopped at a food truck for a carne asada burrito and further pondered our options. We could cycle to Glenwood Springs over Cottonwood Pass but it’s all gravel and we’d still likely be stuck in Glenwood Springs for days since the forecast was calling for lots of rain the next 2+ days. We left Gypsum with only the thought to ride another 40 miles east to Avon for the night and then maybe climb Vail Pass in the rain the next day to get us back home to Frisco.
As we approached the Eagle Airport we began discussing cutting our losses and getting a rental car home. The more we talked, including talking to Tyler at Dollar Remtal (who gave us a great deal on a Toyota minivan), the more we knew it was the best thing to do even if it made us sad to not be able to complete our planned ride.
So we made three 65 mile trips back and forth to get our bikes home and the rental minivan back to the Eagle Airport. But we did see more aspens starting to turn and the rain hadn’t materialized yet.
So we ended on a high note by stopping for dinner at the Route 6 Cafe near Avon where we’d had a wonderful lunch on a previous bike trip to Aspen a few years back. A couple of cold gin drinks in our hands and a very tasty meal following helped us come to terms with our fate and our choices and end a topsy-turvy day appreciating all that we had. Autumn’s not over yet. We still may get an Aspen Tour yet.
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