Oh, it started out as a GREAT idea...yesterday, Mike asked if I wanted to join him on a 2.5-3 hour bike ride up to Woodland Park...I said 'yep' and so we started asking other people if they wanted to join. By 11am this morning, when we rolled out of the training center, we had also recruited Jasmine, Ethan, and Sarah G. We were all pretty aware that the weather was a bit chilly and there were some heavy clouds building, so we dressed appropriately.
Here is a little
backgroud about this route...Woodland Park is a town located north along Highway 24. The elevation in COS is 6000 feet, Woodland Park tops out at 8700 feet. I drive through WP every time I go skiing in Vail and
Breck. Most importantly, The Donut Mill is located in WP...I'm talking about Cinnamon Rolls the size of your face, Fritters the size of your palm, and Bear Claws the size of (yep, you guessed it) BEAR CLAWS! And everything is ridiculously cheap, most things cost under a dollar!
Naturally, this is THE place for hungry and poor athletes to stop after hiking, skiing, and (of course) in the middle of a long bike ride! I will confess that the promise of a Donut Mill stop was the deciding factor for me to join this ride...same with everyone else I was cycling with. I have never biked from COS to WP, only driven through it to other destinations.
We rolled out of the OTC at 11am and were having a very enjoyable ride. The sun was shinning, we were all chatting and laughing, and taking turns on the front pulling into the headwind whipping down the canyon. The road (Highway 24) is a 4 lane, divided road that winds through Ute Pass up to WP. At one point we turned off the highway onto a quieter side street that paralleled it for about 7 miles...then we rejoined the highway for the final few miles into town. At about the same time we passed the "Welcome to WP, elevation 8700 feet" sign...it started SNOWING on us! No kidding, flakes were landing on my jacket (by-the-way, the sun had disappeared about 30 minutes prior) and my face was starting to freeze...I won't bring up the condition of my toes, which at this point had been frozen for half the ride.
But we were almost there, the Donut Mill was JUST around the next corner, on the other side of the stop light! We rolled right up to the door, ready to make a quick entrance, purchase, and consumption before hurrying to beat the storm home.
Wait a second...it's kinda dark in the windows...and the 'Open' sign isn't lit up?!? What does that piece of paper taped to the front door say?? "The Donut Mill will be closed on Wednesday, October 17
th for RENOVATIONS!!!!!!!!" YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!
No joking, our 1 hour and 47 minutes of non-stop climbing got us to a CLOSED Donut Mill. If our feet, hands, and half our faces weren't already frozen, we probably would have done some yelling and gesturing. Instead, we turned around, rode 100 meters back down the sidewalk to the nearest coffee shop, hurried inside, and made orders for five hot drinks.
When the drinks were drained (too soon for my liking) we all pulled our extra layers out of our jersey pockets, zipped up, and layered our chests with newspaper. No kidding again...I learned a new trick from Sarah
Groff. We took the crappy parts of the newspaper (classifieds, advertisements, etc) and spread them across the front of our chests and belly. It was the coolest (or should I say, warmest) idea I've heard of...my bike ride home was nowhere near as horrible as I expected. Yes, my hands and feet were numb, but since my chest was 100% protected from the wind, it was much easier to tolerate.
What took us 1 hour and 7 minutes to climb, took us under 24 minutes to descend! Nope, still not kidding...we rocketed down the Ute Pass averaging over 40 miles an hour without pause. I lead the way (what hinders me on the climb up, sure does help on the way back down, if you get my point:) down the winding road. We stayed off the shoulder...while it's okay on the 10mph average trip going up...you don't want to hit a rock/hole at 40+mph and go flying. That is, we stayed off the shoulder until we got back into the COS area...that's when the word was passed up to me in the front that Jasmine had a flat!
And it was definitely flat...a nail had gone clear through her tire/tube and come out the other side! Fortunately, my Dad taught me well and I carry an extra TIRE in my seat pack. We pulled out the tire, my frame pump, Jasmine's spare tube, and got her ready to ride again. The five of us were rolling for less than 10 minutes when I hear "I think I've got a flat" from Mike...yep, sure enough, he had an industrial-size staple protruding through his tire. Whip out another tube, employ the frame pump again, his tire was good to go...and then we were rolling, AGAIN.
20 minutes later, we pulled into the OTC. 3.5 hours on the road...2.7 hours of ride time...sometimes that's just what happens, you can't plan it and you can't always avoid it. Usually, it's going to happen when you least expect it and when you really don't want it to...like when you're in a 50+ person group ride, 30 miles from home, and no one else is going to stop and pull you home in the massive headwind:)! Or in our case, when it's freezing cold outside and all you wanted was one blasted donut from the Donut Mill!
Annmarie and I, pausing mid-day, to capture our matching outfits on film (actually, on a memory chip). (No, we did NOT plan any of it:)
