Ang and I decided it was time for an adventure so we’re off to Aspen on our bikes for a 5 day trip but not before a stop at Walmart for a spare tube for her bike and some sunscreen to help protect our aging skin (too late). We were headed up to Vail Pass via Copper on the Ten Mile Trail shortly after 9AM for a 60’ish mile ride to Eagle for the night. In case you’re wondering, Angela and her eBike ‘Babe-e’ volunteered to carry both of our panniers while I’ll manage the odds and ends with my handle bar bag and rear rack bag on my faithful Surly Disk Trucker (without a name).
We planned this trip about a month ago hoping to capture the changing of the aspens but a mild and wet summer seems to have them in mostly summer colors still.
However the willows and meadow grasses climbing up Vail Pass have all turned yellow, orange and brown so hopefully the aspens won’t be too far behind.
Bravo to CDOT for maintaining the Rec-path while they rebuild I-70 for about 10 miles west of Vail Pass. It’s a major undertaking and we had 6 different flag people managing bike and construction traffic. Kudos CDOT because if not for you sparing the Rec-path we would not have been able to make this trip!
However they didn’t leave a lot of space as you can see east bound traffic lumbering up I-70 just feet away from Ang while construction traffic is working on the left side of the Jersey barriers. Usually we can bomb down this stretch but we rode our brakes for the best part of 6 miles.
With most of the hard work behind us and in the heat of the afternoon and just 10 miles to get to our hotel in Eagle we stopped at one of our favorite spots on this route along the Eagle River for some shade.
And then we were entertained by Chester who loved to fetch a tennis balll out of the river endlessly. We however had to push on.
Ang and I are pretty much evenly matched with her ebike in ‘eco’ mode or not on at all but sometimes she likes to show what she could do when she goes into boost mode and flashes by me. She uses her battery power sparingly, mostly on climbs (or sometimes into the strong headwinds we faced most of the day) and after 60 miles and almost 3,000 ft of climbing she still had over half of her battery left when we got to the motel.
Nearing Eagle we see a few more trees starting to turn. We got to our motel around 3:15, rested, showered and wondered a few blocks for a nice dinner to-go from a place called Pickles and had a nice evening leading to crashing hard for the night.
I took this picture in black and white by accident. While it doesn’t show any fall colors I still thought it was pretty cool.
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