Jesper's birthday came shortly after we returned from a LONG vacation traveling around Colorado to sample some of the finest mountain bike trails in the world. I kind of feel like his special day got swallowed up by the vacation. Plus, when I went back to look at the pics from that ride, I was blown away by how beautiful it was!!! So, here's a short post to celebrate my honey's 39th birthday ride!
We have adopted a practice my brother Jeff follows - never to work on his birthday. Jesper's actual day fell on a Sunday, so we took Monday, August 10th, off. On Sunday, we chilled and did basically nothing, very unusual for us! Monday we awoke even earlier than we do to go to work and loaded up the car with bikes (the Safire and the Spider). I know, you must be thinking we were nuts to go on yet another mountain bike ride after riding for our entire vacation! I guess we like to ride our bikes!
We headed up I-70 to Copper Ski Resort, which the Colorado Trail snakes across on its way to Kokomo Pass and beyond. Kokomo was our goal as an out-and-back, although we had as an option a loop coming down Kokomo to Camp Hale. I had ridden a portion of this part of the Colorado Trail last year up to Searle Pass and was looking forward to taking it all the way to Kokomo!
Like most Colorado rides, this one started by going up, and up, and up. After about 8 miles of up, we made it to Searle Pass, then rode up and and down above the treeline until we hit the high point of 12,390 feet before Kokomo Pass. Jesper and I both LOVE being above tree line. The tundra is so ruggedly beautiful!
Kokomo Pass was COLD and windy and the clouds were building up, so we passed on the Camp Hale loop and headed back down. What took over three hours to ascend took just over an hour and a half to go down, and that included a 15 minute lunch stop! That downhill was a lot of fun!
After 22 miles and over 5,000 feet of climbing, we ended the day with a beer at the bar we frequent many a day after skiing. It was kinda strange to be there without snow, skiers and all the other wintry things we usually associate Copper Resort with!
Here are some pictures of the ride:
We have adopted a practice my brother Jeff follows - never to work on his birthday. Jesper's actual day fell on a Sunday, so we took Monday, August 10th, off. On Sunday, we chilled and did basically nothing, very unusual for us! Monday we awoke even earlier than we do to go to work and loaded up the car with bikes (the Safire and the Spider). I know, you must be thinking we were nuts to go on yet another mountain bike ride after riding for our entire vacation! I guess we like to ride our bikes!
We headed up I-70 to Copper Ski Resort, which the Colorado Trail snakes across on its way to Kokomo Pass and beyond. Kokomo was our goal as an out-and-back, although we had as an option a loop coming down Kokomo to Camp Hale. I had ridden a portion of this part of the Colorado Trail last year up to Searle Pass and was looking forward to taking it all the way to Kokomo!
Like most Colorado rides, this one started by going up, and up, and up. After about 8 miles of up, we made it to Searle Pass, then rode up and and down above the treeline until we hit the high point of 12,390 feet before Kokomo Pass. Jesper and I both LOVE being above tree line. The tundra is so ruggedly beautiful!
Kokomo Pass was COLD and windy and the clouds were building up, so we passed on the Camp Hale loop and headed back down. What took over three hours to ascend took just over an hour and a half to go down, and that included a 15 minute lunch stop! That downhill was a lot of fun!
After 22 miles and over 5,000 feet of climbing, we ended the day with a beer at the bar we frequent many a day after skiing. It was kinda strange to be there without snow, skiers and all the other wintry things we usually associate Copper Resort with!
Here are some pictures of the ride:
The birthday boy coming out of the forest above tree line
Abundant flowers in August!!!
Muted colors of the tundra and the numbered peaks in the distance
Kokomo Pass (~12,000 feet) was cold and windy!
Jesper taking off on the descent - wheee!!!More of my pics here! Happy Birthday Sweetie!
1 comment:
happy birthday jesper!
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