Rocky Mountain High..... Colorado!

So I just got out of Colorado. This was by far the most amazing states I have been to so far. IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! We basically finished rolling through the Rocky Mountains. I put a lot of mic on my homepage video. I last left off in Ft. Collins.

After Ft. Collins we went to Estes Park, Co. It was a ride of a good warm up. We climbed about 800 feet total that day. We went through Big Thompson Canyon where we basically climbed into Estes. It was an amazing canyon where we hugged the river the whole time. Once we got into Estes we followed a road to Eagle Rock School. We stayed in the "High School" in the middle of nowhere that boarded students that were destined for failure and it helps them get on track and helps them graduate. We stayed in the gym where I slept on the bleachers.

We then rode into Granby where we climbed over Trail Ridge in the Rocky Mountain National Park. This was an amazing climb. I saw Elk for the firs time ever. The views of the Rockies were breath taking. This was a time where I started to pull away from the group I was with and just sat amazed at God’s creation. Over all on this climb I rode to an elevation of 12,036 feet. The climb took me about 4 hours and it was amazing. When I got to the top I passed the Continental Divide. We had a great downhill afterward that lasted about 12 miles. One cool thing that happened was there was construction on the road. There was a flagman that had us stopped on the downhill and before he let any cars go he allowed me to get a head start before any cars. It was cool because I was actually faster than any of the cars on that part of the road. We stayed in one of the leader’s friend’s house. It was a really cool winter home neighboring a ski resort. That night a big group of us watched Taken. Great day.

The next morning we rode into Frisco. It was an overall nice ride. We didn’t go through any major passes but there were a lot of rolling hills. On the way there was a great chocolate store. I bought some chocolate covered marshmallows. They were good but not so good for me. I mainly hung out with Sonya and Max. We stopped at a river and hung out for a while. We then booked it into the town where we found a Pearl Izumi outlet store. We then tried to beat a giant thundercloud before we got to the host. It didn’t help that we got 10 miles off track. I definitely learned that not everyone that says they can read a map can actually read a map. But a lot of us in the group had a great time being lost. We got to our host, which was our first camping experience. It was a really fun experience. We camped on a lake and got to watch a thunderstorm roll by the lake. I got to capture a great shot of lightning and listen to the rain fall on the tent as I fell asleep. A great camping experience.

We then rode to Salida where we went over Hoosier Pass. We crossed the Continental Divide for the second time. This is a part in the route where we shot south for a while and the mountains curved just enough to make us go over the pass again. The elevation on the pass was 11,539 feet. It was not an easy ride but it was still amazing. We then rode down into Salida where we stayed in the bottom story of a church. It was the first church that basically said that the key was under the mat, make sure it’s clean in the morning. It was definitely a weird experience. We did have an amazing pasta dinner donated by a local restaurant and I saw my first Safeway in this town sense I left California. I know, information worth sharing.

Our next day of riding took us into Gunnison where we went over yet another pass. We climbed to an elevation of 11,312 feet on Monarch Pass. We crossed the Continental Divide for our third and final time. It was a great climb that took me only 3 hours to climb. The cool thing about this ride was the fact it was on Hwy. 50. I was waiting for Missouri Flat Rd. to show up but I heard that it was till a few miles down the road. We had a very short decent and kinda stayed on flat land for 30 miles. We stayed in a Baptist church that had some amazing art in it. Some of it was a little weird but most of it was really cool. The executive pastor was only 25 and was bringing in more of a structure of church that was drawing in the 20 something’s crowd. I cool looking place.

The next day I was on Sweep with Emily. It was a great morning. There were these small lakes that had some of the most beautiful reflections on them. We had to stop when most of the group went cliff diving. There would be pics but some people jumped in the nude. Not really something I want to put on the blog. It was a long hard day. We didn’t get into lunch until 3PM. We were definitely hungry by then. After lunch we had a nice downhill, another uphill, then a great downhill right into Montrose where the Local Christian church hosted us and Habitat 4 Humanity cooked us dinner.

We then rode into Naturita. It really wasn’t an exciting day. We rode through a canyon for most of the day. Sean, Dennis, Ryan, and I rode through the canyon and into town with an average speed of 20 MPH. We got into town and stayed in the elementary school. We also increased the town population by 8%. Small town with nothing was kinda peaceful.

Then we rode to Moab, Utah where I am today. This day was nice with beautiful landscapes. It was by far the hottest day we had. We now realize we are in the dessert. It was a good ride with its share of hills. Dan Coop and I rode for most of the day. The day ended on a bad note thou.

My good friend Miranda had a bad fall this day (she has her pic in my last post, we hung the ceiling light). She was trying to get her camera out of her bag and lost her balance. She fell, hit her head and broke her collarbone in 4 places. Today I visited her in the hospital and waited for her parents to come. Miranda had to go home to New York because of her injuries. Please pray for her. She is going through a lot of pain because of the accident and because she was not able to finish the ride. Please pray that she has a fast recovery and that she is at peace with the events that have happened. We are hoping to see her in San Francisco when we get there. My biggest hope is that she will be able to ride across the golden gate with us.

So we are now a group of 31 riders. Today was hard for everyone. It is nice that we don’t have to ride the next day. We will be building with a local organization that builds affordable adobe houses. We will get to learn more about natural earth housing which is pretty cool. Thanks for reading and I will chat at you later.

~Ryan