Having raced last weekend and knowing that I will be racing again in the next few weeks meant that I had to get a nice long ride. So I thought about going up into the high mountains. Last Thursday as I talked to one of my athletes and considered riding together but I said that I was doing this “crazy ride”. Once I mentioned what the ride was we decided that it was not a good idea as going on this ride will make staying aerobic a very difficult thing to do. My personal thought was that I was going to try to stay aerobic. Here is the “crazy ride” story.
Most of you have heard of Rocky Mountain National Park. This park is a very high park as it sits right on the Continental Divide. The continental divide is a line on the map. If water falls on one side it will eventually flow to the Pacific ocean and if water falls on the other side will eventually flow to the Atlantic ocean. I thought that was mind boggling when I first heard of it. The road that crosses the continental divide inside the park is called Trail Ridge road. It goes all the way up to 12000 feet. The last 1500 feet or so are barren as it is above the tree line. That means that there is not enough oxygen up there to be able to maintain vegetation. Another mind boggling thought.
One side of trail ride road starts about 30 miles from my new house in Winter Park. The other side of the road is in Estes Park which happens to be about 30 miles from my old house in Boulder. I have ridden to the top of Trail Ridge road from Boulder and back and I even went over and down to Winter Park once but never had I ridden up from Winter Park. This new adventure was my crazy ride for this weekend.
Any time you ride unto that kind of elevation you have to watch the weather and also you want to start early. Storms here always come right about noon or later in the afternoon. You do not want to be at 12000 feet during a storm. So my plan was to start promptly from my house at 7:30 AM and ride the first 30 miles or so to the park then slowly up to the top. The start of Trail Ridge Road is at a town called Grand Lake. My wife loves this town and the kids have parks to play in. So the plan was for my wife and kids to meet me in Grand Lake after the ride.
I brought my camera and cell phone for an emergency and to take pictures of any animals along the way. Once I got to Grand Lake I was told that Trial Ridge Road may be closed due to a rock slide. Fortunately once I got into the park the rangers did not mentioned it. I did not ask either. So I assumed I could go as far as I could go.
The first 9 miles of Trail Ridge road were really mellow. It went up but not too hard. So far my heart rate was not a problem at all. The temperature is really cool in the mornings so it was easy to stay aerobic. On the way I saw foxes, deer, elk and moose. Check the pictures here.
I was close to 3 hours into this ride and the climb was not hard yet. That is good but knew that that will change and I was supposed to meet Kelly and the kids before 1:00 PM. That was going to be tough. So as soon as the climb started I found a ridge and got the cell phone out to see if I can call her. Fortunately I had a signal and I got a hold of her. We decided that they were going to drive to the top of trail ridge and meet me there. It is a beautiful ride and they stopped along the way for the gorgeous sights.
The climb got tough but my heart rate was solid, a full 5 to 10 beats below my max aerobic of 141. Only a couple of times I got to 137. I hit the switch backs where you look down and see the road below. I really like those. You can check on cars coming up the road. Finally about another half hour later I crossed the continental divide at Milner pass. Wow to be honest that seemed easy. I asked a ranger and he said the hard part was over. Another 5 or 6 miles to the very top of the mountain and that was it.
I kept on looking back for Kelly and the kids and they finally cough me. I immediately dumped a bunch of extra clothing and stuff that was holding me back. I dumped my hats, booties, food etc. Alright now I can really climb. Unfortunately I got a bit too over zealous and my heart rate hit 145. Bummer I almost had a perfect ride going. Oh well.
I hit the tree line and got hit by the winds. With no trees it is a reality. Oh yes and it gets colder. Where are my clothes? Along the way I passed some great snow banks. Just a couple of weeks ago this road was fully covered with snow. It just finally got plowed and opened to the public this week. You can see a picture of that here too. These last few miles were tough with the wind and as I go up I can see a storm coming. My wife was at the top. Good thing for that. Other drivers most likely thought I was nuts riding my bike up there. When I hit the very top I felt like I was going backwards. The last 20 yards to the car were against a 40 MPH wind. The timing could not have been more perfect. I put on a jacket posed for the picture here and we headed down to Grand Lake for lunch. The ride took me 4:30 but it was mostly up. I was hoping for 5 hours but I was not going anywhere in this storm. Besides it would have been a one hour downhill ride. That is fun but no real fitness gain from it. Overall the ride was really easy. When I told my wife that it felt easy she said, “maybe you are just getting in good shape”. I hope she is right, but I do think that riding Trail Ridge road from the other side is tougher.