total distance: I have also stopped doing the math on this as well. But I will fix that sometime in the near future. A rough estimate has it that we have covered about 2700 miles thus far.
Colorado. There are certain things unique to Colorado that make it a place that no one ever wants to leave. Riding through central Colorado is pure bliss. Lush wildflowers in all sorts of colors line the road. In the distance mountains upon mountains protrude out from the ground. They are jagged mountains. Covered with patches of snow mountains. Mountains that at 14,000 feet appear to be touching clouds. It took us two days, and two mountain passes to cross over the Rockies. And surprisingly, those two days were a piece of cake with an amazing topping - the view.
We rode into Telluride two days ago, a town infamous for its skiing and mountain access. Skiing season is long over, but the town itself remains lively and filled with people. Through word of mouth, we heard of a hike/climb named the Via Ferrata or "Road with Irons" that involved a manmade route going along a mountain side. This route was built with steel ladders and a cable protection. All we needed was a harness, some locking carabiners and a few slings. And how lucky were we that we had all those things with us (yep, ever since Boulder, we have been lugging around a good 5-8 pounds of extra climbing gear.) Eager to check out this climb we set our alarms for 4 am to hike up the hidden trail towards Via Ferrata. It was still dark outside and millions of stars were visible in the sky (I love star gazing.) We crossed a waterfall, hiked 2 miles uphill, did some rock scrambling and finally reached the beginning of the route. At the start of the route, we had to walk close to the edge of the mountain side. A misstep or a slip of a rock would have us tumble down 200 feet to the base of the mountain. For the most part, however, we were clipped to the cable protection and moving at a steady pace. The crux of the route consisted of a long traverse across a wall. I took a gaze down below, and could feel a rush of fright and excitement rush through me. We were high up and the view was amazing. It took about 3 hours to complete the entire hike and this was probably the best hike I have ever done.
Besides all the climbing and hiking stuff, Colorado also has some other interesting things. Only in Colorado will you get pulled over by a cop while on a bike. We were cruising down the road when a siren went off behind us. I didn't stop right away, because I didn't even consider that the siren was meant for us bikers. But Ryan pulled over and sure enough the cop was right behind us. An officer got out of the car. He approached us with a serious face and I tried to brainstorm what law we could have possibly violated. Then he asked, "so where are you guys heading?" Taken by surprise by this seemingly innocent question, we answered with our usual speech. It turned out that he just wanted to make sure that we were safe and riding in single file line, to avoid being hit be any cars. "Well, thank you officer, we will be safe!" The next day, we had another cop pull over to us as we were taking pictures along the road. He offered some spare tubes and told us to have a good trip. So yeah, cops in Colorado definitely have a different attitude towards bikers than anywhere else.
Some other interesting observations... Only in Colorado will you find public parks with bouldering walls that have some extremely challenging problems. Seriously, no child (or me) should just attempt those boulders, because injury will likely occur. Only in Colorado will you come across towns that have pubs and saloons but no grocery store.
We just crossed the border into Utah! woot woot! Colorado was amazing and certainly a place I'd like to come back to soon, but what is ahead will surely be great as well.
